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kriziachloe's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
“in pieces and yet still present”
My first Jhumpa Lahiri book and boy it did not disappoint. Open, vulnerable, and intimate. Her thoughts transformed and expressed into words are just so so beautiful. The metaphors are delicate pieces and it is just lovely. I want to savor this art.
This book reminded me that I really am into reflective and emotional writing. Her story and journey — albeit not easy, with the Italian language has inspired me. I am always fascinated with words. and I want my words to come together and create my memoir in the future.
“But I think that the need to write always comes from desperation, along with hope”
Jhumpa Lahiri, you are truly a wonderful writer.
and so, I aspire to rebirth myself through writing, just like how you rebirth yourself through learning a new language.
“Reality provided the seeds. I imagined the rest.”
5⭐️
betweenbookends's review
3.5
A really interesting memoir about language and translation, of falling so deeply in love with a language and wanting to be a native speaker of it. Some really profound musings on processing of learning a new language of immersing oneself completely in it. I did find though that Lahiri takes herself a bit too seriously, a penance to master Italian. I feel she could have really infused some levity, some lightness and humour to her journey rather than take such one note approach with utmost sincerity and solemnity that really kind of pulls it down. And also ended up feeling kind of repetitive at parts. More positive leaning but a slightly mixed reading experience for me.
roseleaf24's review against another edition
4.0
This is not exactly memoir, more like a collection of essays about Lahiri's journey with the Italian language. I listened to the audio version, read by Lahiri, though she was reading a translator's version of her words, which was fascinating to me. She wrote it in Italian, but a translator did the English translation, so that Lahiri would not be tempted to fix or change what she had said in Italian when writing in her dominant language. This is not a linear collection of essays, but a series of thoughts about language and writing. I really enjoyed it and found the layers of thought that she shares here easy to relate to, even though I have always written and spoken in my native language.
mollywetta's review
3.0
Foreign languages elude me, despite an earnest desire to learn them. It was comforting to find that Lahiri, a writer I admire as much as Mindy Kaling does, also struggled with learning a new language. This short read is a love letter to words, perfect for anyone who often ponders language and expression. Highly recommended.