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A review by look_whos_reading
In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri
5.0
There was much to love about this book. First off, it is a book about language and writing. Sold, then and there. Next it is about the romance with and commitment to languages. Recently I realize my reading has gravitated towards that which reminds me of me, varied as the titles may be in genre and style.
This story too held a lot of breath-taking lines that I just had to stop and read over and over again. This review will be riddled with quotes thus:
"You can't float without the possibility of drowning, of sinking. To know a new language, to immerse yourself, you have to leave the shore."
"I don't know Bengali perfectly. I don't know how to read it, or even write it. I have an accent, I speak without authority, and so I've always perceived a disjunction between it and me. As a result I consider my mother tongue, paradoxically, a foreign language, too."
"My knowledge of English is both an advantage and a hindrance. I rewrite everything like a lunatic until it satisfies me, while in Italian, like a soldier in the desert, I have to simply keep going."
"Ever since I was a child, I've belonged only to my words. I don't have a country, a specific culture. If I didn't write, if I didn't work with words, I wouldn't feel that I'm present on the earth."
"Those who don't belong to any specific place can't, in fact, return anywhere. Without a homeland and without a true mother tongue, I wander the world, even at my desk."
Parts that I connected with in Jhumpa Lahiri's "In Other Words":
1. I loved reading about her process of reading a foreign language - the way she stops at every strange word or phrase, makes a note, looks it up and after finishing the book, goes back to all her notes on it. It may seem like a disjointed list of ramblings that, out of context, seem meaningless. But that's how I learnt French, I remember. Even now, when I go back to my notes I relive all those classes and sessions and suddenly the language becomes more intimate to me. I wish to read English in this manner too - irrespective of my stronger hold over it compared to any other language I speak.
2. I understand her nervousness and frustration while writing in Italian. When the words fail to make a connection to her ideas and she finds herself limited, like a child, grasping to be understood. It shows her courage, abandoning her dominant language for something that many might call a mere fancy. She describes how she was born into one language (Bengali) and raised in another (English). She has made a career out of writing in English. Essentially, expressing herself in a third tongue now is both risqué and leaves her vulnerable. I found similar thoughts occupying me when I first started working in French - leaving behind the Bengali of my childhood and English that held up (like a scaffolding) all my education and career until then.
3. Ms. Lahiri admits having written her earlier novels in English as an outsider. Her works are based in Calcutta where she has never lived. So in a sense it pays homage to her roots but does nothing to reflect herself as an individual. Her work in Italian though, a culture external to her, tells a story of her actual experiences. This is an exercise I found to be very interesting (although attempted by many celebrated authors like Samuel Beckett and others in the past).
This autobiographical, little story will be inspiring to anyone who is on a similar journey of learning new languages or writing their own story. This translated work in English uses simple language and lots of metaphors to illustrate a writer's struggles and triumphs.
This story too held a lot of breath-taking lines that I just had to stop and read over and over again. This review will be riddled with quotes thus:
"You can't float without the possibility of drowning, of sinking. To know a new language, to immerse yourself, you have to leave the shore."
"I don't know Bengali perfectly. I don't know how to read it, or even write it. I have an accent, I speak without authority, and so I've always perceived a disjunction between it and me. As a result I consider my mother tongue, paradoxically, a foreign language, too."
"My knowledge of English is both an advantage and a hindrance. I rewrite everything like a lunatic until it satisfies me, while in Italian, like a soldier in the desert, I have to simply keep going."
"Ever since I was a child, I've belonged only to my words. I don't have a country, a specific culture. If I didn't write, if I didn't work with words, I wouldn't feel that I'm present on the earth."
"Those who don't belong to any specific place can't, in fact, return anywhere. Without a homeland and without a true mother tongue, I wander the world, even at my desk."
Parts that I connected with in Jhumpa Lahiri's "In Other Words":
1. I loved reading about her process of reading a foreign language - the way she stops at every strange word or phrase, makes a note, looks it up and after finishing the book, goes back to all her notes on it. It may seem like a disjointed list of ramblings that, out of context, seem meaningless. But that's how I learnt French, I remember. Even now, when I go back to my notes I relive all those classes and sessions and suddenly the language becomes more intimate to me. I wish to read English in this manner too - irrespective of my stronger hold over it compared to any other language I speak.
2. I understand her nervousness and frustration while writing in Italian. When the words fail to make a connection to her ideas and she finds herself limited, like a child, grasping to be understood. It shows her courage, abandoning her dominant language for something that many might call a mere fancy. She describes how she was born into one language (Bengali) and raised in another (English). She has made a career out of writing in English. Essentially, expressing herself in a third tongue now is both risqué and leaves her vulnerable. I found similar thoughts occupying me when I first started working in French - leaving behind the Bengali of my childhood and English that held up (like a scaffolding) all my education and career until then.
3. Ms. Lahiri admits having written her earlier novels in English as an outsider. Her works are based in Calcutta where she has never lived. So in a sense it pays homage to her roots but does nothing to reflect herself as an individual. Her work in Italian though, a culture external to her, tells a story of her actual experiences. This is an exercise I found to be very interesting (although attempted by many celebrated authors like Samuel Beckett and others in the past).
This autobiographical, little story will be inspiring to anyone who is on a similar journey of learning new languages or writing their own story. This translated work in English uses simple language and lots of metaphors to illustrate a writer's struggles and triumphs.