Talking about Jhumpa Lahiri

The Lowland was the book for book club this fine afternoon and this is S in her condo on the 3rd floor overlooking Lake Union, talking about it’s successful author, Jhumpa Lahiri.   I know the lighting is all wrong for a good portrait (or I could have done it differently) but she doesn’t like to have her picture taken and I liked the light and her hands and she will like the shadow.    She’s been to Calcutta (part of the scene for the book)  and has also heard this Indian American author speak..   It was an interesting discussion of this finalist for the Man Booker prize and altho we were happy to read it, some thought it was a formula book of “the immigrant experience” and the characters were not so well developed, as were others in her other books, Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, and Unaccustomed Earth.   I know there are lots of other opinions out there….some today questioned  much of the contemporary fiction of our day written by young authors of “what they know” (much of “what they know” being boring)  We might have to read a bit more more nonfiction.… I love this group of women!


Tonight it’s off for a lecture with H on “Contending with Illness in ancient Egypt. Health care and disease at Dier el-Medina.” for something different!