Jhumpa Lahiri

Whenever I go book shopping, the first thing that attracts me for newer authors is the book cover. Its colour, its illustrations, its penmanship... I find it very tough to pick up a book where the cover doesn't appeal to me. For some old favourites, I always used to wonder: what made the author go for such a drab cover?

Now that I've read "The Clothing of Books" by Jhumpa Lahiri, I feel like I've seen judging authors unfairly. She stunned me when she wrote that in this new age of digital publishing, the author didn't have much of a say in choosing covers. In fact, the author and cover designer don't even meet. That is an eye-opener, isn't it?

This is a beautiful little book. Actually not even a book, it's more like a non-fiction novella, hardly about 80 pages long. I would not recommend this to everyone. This would appeal to those who are intrigued to know the publishing & cover selection problems from an author's perspective, and to those who genuinely love books in their true form, i.e. not just for their story or author or the spice they add to your life but for simply being a physical book - a work of art to be treasured and relished passionately!

Here's a little excerpt from this lovely little book:

"Publishers today have overloaded covers with unreasonable expectations. They must grab and win the attention of dazed and disoriented browsers in big bookstores, who must pluck this book and only this one from overstuffed shelves or a table blanketed in volumes. All of the energy and strategy behind a book cover underlines a depressing fact: the terrifying number of books published in the world every year, and the few that are actually bought and read."



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Join me on the Facebook group, "Readers Forever!", for more reviews and other book-related discussions and fun.… (mer)

A collection of reflections (short connected essays) on Lahiri’s decision to stop writing in English and slowly start writing in Italian.
It’s not dull, but an amusing critical analysis of language and the writing process. It made me think about the creation and reading of texts. It allowed me to have an interior conversation with the author, as I thought about her reflections. Enjoyable.

One could say that the mechanism of metamorphosis is the only element of life that never changes. The journey of every individual, every country, every historical epoch, of the entire universe and all it contains, is nothing but a series of changes, at times subtle, at times deep, without which we would stand still. The moments of transition, in which something changes, constitute the backbone of all of us. Whether they are a salvation or a loss, they are moments that we tend to remember. They give a structure to our existence. Almost all the rest is oblivion.
I think that the power of art is the power to wake us up, strike us to our depths, change us. What are we searching for when we read a novel, see a film, listen to a piece of music? We are searching, through a work of art, for something that alters us, that we weren't aware of before. We want to transform ourselves, just as Ovid's masterwork transformed me.… (mer)

Jhumpa Lahiri's newest collection of short stories are not all set in Rome, but do concern people who live or have lived in Rome. Lahiri's characters range from the exceedingly well-off to those on the fringes of society. Lahiri's stories are strongest when she remains close to her own experience, like in The Reentry, where a woman is invited to lunch with a friend at a traditional restaurant, where she encounters rising levels of racism, which her friend tries to brush aside. The middle story, The Steps, celebrates Rome's diversity in age, ethnic background, and financial status, in a natural and affecting way. Some of the stories fall flat or feel a little moralizing, but her writing is, as always, worth reading. Lahiri's been in Italy long enough to have a clear-eyed view of its faults and strengths and it's interesting to get her take. This isn't her best collection of short stories, but she's an extraordinary writer and the bar is set very high.… (mer)

I really loved this first of Lahiri's writings in Italian, even though I was unsure how to read a bilingual book when I only read one of the languages. It felt odd to just read one side of it so I glanced over at the Italian now and then and recalled my pandemic Duolingo Italian phase. I did not persevere with Italian because I gave up when it got hard but am making more of an effort now with Swedish and I felt just a glimmer of understanding of her foray into Italian and Italy. I learned so much more about her as writer and now want to read more and more. I still have two novels from her pre-Italian works and one post so I am looking forward to both.… (mer)