Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri

Such an apt title! Whereabouts brings together little scenes from a woman’s life as though piecing together a picture of who she is and where she belongs. Each short chapter presents a place: on the sidewalk, on the street, in the office, at the trattoria, in the waiting room… each almost a little story in itself. They present insights into other people’s lives, but the connection between them all is the woman herself, her thoughts and feelings. She seems to have many friends, even lovers, but the overall feeling is of a solitary person moving slowly through the world around her. And there is a sense of melancholy, of loneliness, and lost moments, missed relationships.

Originally written in Italian, by a London born daughter of Indian migrants to the United States, the novel reflects Lahiri’s sense of dislocation, and has its nascence in her love of Italy and the Italian language. The setting of Whereabouts is an Italian city, probably Rome, where one can wander from a bar to a trattoria down narrow winding roads, an observer of daily scenes, reminders of moments in one’s own life.

It is a beautifully written novel, poetic in the way that with just a few words it creates scenes, feelings and memories. It is one to pick up and read again and ponder.

Themes: Identity, Loneliness.

Helen Eddy