TOW #3 - Article: "Jhumpa Lahiri comes up short in 'The Lowland'" by Porochista Khakpour

Porochista Khakpour reviews The Lowland, the most recent novel by critically acclaimed author, Jhumpa Lahiri. Lahiri has written two separate collections of short stories as well as one other novel; Interpreter of Maladies, Unaccustomed Earth, The Namesake. The author of this article, Khakpour, writes for The Los Angeles Times and will have two published novels by this winter. He is writing this as a book review for the newspaper. After having loved Interpreter of Maladies and Unaccustomed Earth, Khakpour knew Lahiri had mastered the art of the short story, but was skeptical as to her prowess towards the novel following his unsatisfactory review of The Namesake. Khakpour does not tread lightly while dissing Lahiri on the lack of exciting writing in The Lowland. Livid that Lahiri chose a characterless wife to be the main character rather than the subversive children, Khakpour states:  "It seems exactly the wrong choice for this book, as if she's invested in telling this story as tepidly as possible. This threatens to collapse the entire narrative in her endgame: Every story line is tiresomely followed until dead end, and the final third of the book is all downwind resolution, overwrought and exhausted, as if in complete misunderstanding of the novel form." Khakpour is ripping this novel left and right, even at one point eluding to the opinion that Americans are so infatuated with Lahiri's work because it is a non-threatening, "watercolor" depiction of Indian-American life. Similies like this give the author's audience a clearer picture of how Lahiri writes by comparing it to something that is commonly known. However, Khakpour found Lahiri's short stories impeccable, making him beg the question: Why does Jhumpa Lahiri need to master both the novel and the short story? His answer: She does not, and most certainly has not. Slipping in his thoughts on her other novel, The Namesake, he refers to it as "clumsy and laborious." This allusion allows the audience to more accurately gauge their attitude towards Lahiri's writing and decipher wether or not The Lowland would appeal to them. Khakpour has certainly put his two cents in on his views of The Lowland and done his best to discourage others from reading this "overwrought and exhausted" novel.