Jhumpa Lahiri: A Mood-Based Reading Guide
From her Pulitzer Prize-winning debut Interpreter of Maladies to her lesser-known essay about book jackets, here's how to approach Lahiri's inimitable canon.
In January I read Jhumpa Lahiri’s book In Other Words and it changed the shape of my entire year.
I had read Lahiri before. I first read The Namesake while on a month-long backpacking trip through Europe. I was lying in my top bunk of a couchette when I read about the train accident. This was in 2007 and I still remember it clearly.
In the years following, I read The Lowland, and after that I read Whereabouts, and at some point I also read I read The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories, collected and edited by Lahiri.
I was a fan, but I didn’t become a superfan until this year.
In Other Words is Lahiri’s memoir about her obsession with the Italian language. I related to it so much because I also have an obsession with Italy and the language, and I have also lived there (I spent the academic year of 2009-2010 obtaining my Master’s in Italian Linguistics).
I have not moved my family to Rome and denounced the English language entirely. But Lahiri has. She did it in 2012, and in that time, she studied, became extremely competent in the Italian language, and kept a notebook — which later became In altre parole (published in Italian in 2015) and In Other Words, translated into English by Ann Goldstein, who is famously Elena Ferrante’s translator.
Given my own aforementioned study of Italian, I read the parallel text of her memoir, which featured Italian on the left-side pages and the English translation on the right. By reading this way, Lahiri made me feel as insatiable as she herself felt while moving her husband and two kids across the ocean. I was entranced and, being the person I am (obsessive like Lahiri) I declared 2024 The Year of Jhumpa.
I began with In Other Words, then proceeded to read Translating Myself and Others, Interpreter of Maladies, Roman Stories, The Clothing of Books, and Unaccustomed Earth — all this year.
If you want to be seduced by Jhumpa Lahiri like I am (and imagine I forever will be), I have a reading guide for you based on moods.
The Jhumpa Lahiri Mood-Based Reading Guide
If you love all things books
The Clothing of Books (2016) is a published essay that Lahiri originally published in Italian, called Il vestito dei libri. This book is for all you readers who love everything about books, including the book jackets. I write about the book at length here, but what you need to know about it is that Lahiri doesn’t love all the covers on her books. “As soon as the book puts on a jacket,” Lahiri says, “the book acquires a new personality. It says something even before being read, just as clothes say something about us before we speak.” It is fascinating from front to back.
If you want a family story across time and place
The Lowland (2013), a National Book Award finalist and Man Booker Prize finalist, is about two very different brothers who come together after a tragedy. It takes place in both India and America and the 1960s and the 2000s. Like much of her work, it’s got a dark edge, but beneath it you can find love, family, and beautiful culture.
If you’re feeling wanderlusty
Whereabouts (2022) is a novel about a woman who wanders around an unnamed Italian city trying to figure out where she belongs (and who she is, for that matter). Originally published as Dove mi trovo in 2018, Whereabouts was translated into English by Lahiri herself. The unnamed protagonist wanders around piazzas and train stations, pools and trattorias. I felt an overwhelming itch to travel when I read it.
If you want to be immersed into the immigrant experience
As mentioned above, The Namesake (2003) was my first experience with Lahiri, and I still remember it a decade and a half after reading it. It’s a family saga that interrogates identity and belonging. It’s beautiful and harsh, much like I imagine the immigrant experience might be.
If you want to be a Pulitzer Prize reader
Interpreter of Maladies (1999) is the collection of stories that made Lahiri a Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Hemingway Award winner — and it was her debut! She was 32 years old when it was published. Read this if you want to know what it takes to win a Pulitzer. (Hint: a lot.)
If you want to fall in love with the Italian language
In Other Words (2015) is the memoir I wrote about above. If you are not yet a lover of the Italian language, this book will bring you there. Her passion jumps off the page and grabs you by the throat.
If you want to understand the nuances of mixed cultures
Unaccustomed Earth (2008) is another collection of stories which, like Interpreter of Maladies, features stories of immigrants and those who float between cultures. Lahiri said she feels suspended between the Bengali and English languages, which is why she found herself studying Italian. The characters within these stories feel similarly.
If you want to move your entire family to Rome and denounce the English language
Roman Stories — first published in Italian, Racconti romani, in 2022 — was published in English in 2023. The thread tying all these stories together is the gorgeous protagonist: the city of Rome.
If you want to understand the mechanics of translation
Translating Myself and Others (2022) dissects Lahiri’s experiences translating both other authors and herself. Translation is about so much more than turning a sentence from one language into another. Every word is a choice, and each chosen word can change the direction of the story. In it, she writes: “I was a translator before I was a writer.” The book positively captivated me.
If you want to read classic Italian short stories collected by Lahiri
If by now you have become adequately seduced by Lahiri, you may want to read The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories (2019). She edited this collection as well as translated some of the stories from Italian into English. Reading these will give you a better understanding of how and why she operates as she does.
Is it love yet? If not, try these:
What are you reading? Are you new to Jhumpa Lahiri? Are you a superfan like me? I’d love to hear about your relationship to this author.
Note: Next week’s Words on Words essay will be coming to you on Wednesday in observance of the holiday.
What I’m reading: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman.
Love,
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Agreed. Jhumpa Lahiri is one of my favorite writers. I had the same experience with “In altre parole.” I believe she also patterned the book after a lake because one may notice how the sections get longer and the complexity of word choice and syntax increases as one progresses through as encountering the profundity of deeper waters. I think her most encouraging thought was when she stated, “I have been studying Italian for 20 years” and was still coasting upon the shore. We tend to want results immediately, but she has taught me that language is much like a person and it would be strange to ask a friend, “How long will it take to know you?”
What a beautiful way to introduce potential reading (and a new writer to me). I think I’m most excited to read Whereabouts. Thank you for writing this, Kolina!