Broken Ties

Jhumpa Lahiri has always excelled at depicting both the value of close human connections and the inevitable pain when those connections are broken. Sometimes the cause of the break is a geographical move, hence she writes often about those who move across the globe to start a new life. Sometimes the break is brought about by a more personal change or failure.  Nonetheless the pain is real and the loss palpable. And when the fractures compound one another the losses build over time and the effects deepen to the point of irrevocability.

Her latest novel, TheLowland, contains more breakage than can be inventoried here. Invaluable relationships are shattered by circumstance, by intent, bu politics, by individual shortcomings. Most of the damage is never repaired, but in fascinating ways the characters each react in their own way.  One continues to invest in new connections, sometimes not so wisely, but always with an open heart and good intent.  Others never heal, remain closed forever, and reflect and inflect their own pain on their peers and on subsequent generations. 

Lahiri. Part of a truly international generation of writers.

The writing is straightforward and effective.  No pyrotechnics here, just good old-fashioned well edited affecting prose.  If there are few outstanding gems to be found,

there are many pleasing semi-precious stones scattered throughout.  And, maybe more importantly there are very few real clunkers.  The result is a moving if rather pessimistic book that shows us over and over again how difficult it is to protect even our most valuable relationships.  The prevailing feeling from the book is the long-term dull pain that comes from those losses. There is hope. We can move forward and strive to make new connections, we can try to heal and minimize the pain, but we are all inevitably deeply scarred.

Interesting that a book with such a dark message can be both moving and uplifting.  My own personal circumstances involve some major recent personal upheavals, so I could easily relate to Lahiri’s characters. But I was not depressed by the book at all.  I took some comfort in knowing that others experience pain similar to my own, and that some do manage to move forward in deeply meaningful ways. Others don’t.  There are lessons to be learned there.