The Lowland

Review

Overall, I liked this novel, but it's a challenging one for me to review. Lahiri's style in the book didn't quite click with me and at times felt too descriptive, but there were certainly passages that caught my attention. Parts of the story really interested me (Udayan's political involvement, the friendship between Subhash and Bela as she was growing up, Gauri's grief and conflicted feelings about motherhood), but those parts were surrounded by other threads that were missing something. I think Lahiri did an excellent job portraying the loneliness and isolation of the characters.

But the future was visible, unspooling incrementally. She wanted to shut her eyes to it. She wished the days and months ahead of her would end. But the rest of her life continued to present itself, time ceaselessly proliferating. She was made to anticipate it against her will.