Takes place in Asia - The Lowland

(I am looking at the cover now - I read it as an ebook - and realizing that I could have read this for the "Pulizer Prize in the last decade" book also!)

I am so excited to write about this book.  I listed it as taking place in Asia, but really it takes place a lot in India and a lot in Rhode Island.  The juxtaposition is one of the many beautiful things about this book.  Let me explain.

This book starts as a book about two brothers growing up inseparable during a rough period in Indian history in Calcutta (60s and 70s).  One brother gets into revolutionary politics, and the other goes to America to study.  As their lives separate, then come together in the most tragic of ways, the story includes more and more characters that we meet, become familiar with, and fall in love with even as we wrestle with their flaws.  The narrative is woven together by the divergence and convergence of paths, and this is achingly lovely and sad.  The tone of the entire book is that of melancholy. I can think of no better backdrop than Rhode Island when you want your tone to be melancholy - though some of the books happiest and/or most triumphant moments happen there.

The writing in this book reawakened me to the art of the writer in a way that I haven't felt for a really long time.  A small example:

Time flowed for Bela in the opposite direction. The day after yesterday, she sometimes said. Pronounced slightly differently, Bela’s name, the name of a flower, was itself the word for a span of time, a portion of the day. Shakal bela meant morning; bikel bela, afternoon. Ratrir bela was night. Bela’s yesterday was a receptacle for anything her mind stored. Any experience or impression that had come before. Her memory was brief, its contents limited. Lacking chronology, randomly rearranged.

This beautiful, musing flow of writing matched so perfectly with themes that showed themselves over and over - the sun as a symbol; rain, the lowlands, the idea of flooding; the topics of loneliness and legacy and memory.

I highly recommend this read, and I'm looking forward to Interpreter of Maladies when I'm done with my current ambitious stack of library books!