Lahiri portrays so well this ‘third’ culture feelings, when one does not quite belong to the culture they grew up in and also not to the culture their parents came from.

She only learnt English when she went to a nursery. “I was ashamed of speaking Bengali and at the same time I was ashamed of feeling ashamed.” Lahiri grew up in the United Stated as a daughter of Bengali immigrants with Bengali as her mother tongue, although she has never been able to properly read and write it. Undeniably, In Other Words is a beautiful ode to Italy, its culture as well as language and to self-discipline of acquiring a new language.īy reading In Other Words, we have a privilege of observing an inquiring mind and a sensitive soul of a wonderful writer during her creative process. The book was also translated into English by another writer and not Lahiri herself.

It is important to mention that In Other Words was originally written in Italian, Lahiri’s third language which she learnt as an adult. It is a kind of a confessional memoir but with a very few details about Lahiri personal life. We witness the author’s anxieties, her self-imposed linguistic odyssey into the depths of Italian language in order to reshape her own personal identity. In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri constitutes an astonishingly beautiful discourse exploring the subjects of identity, the meaning of exile, belonging, cultural displacement, alienation, mixed and ‘third’ culture background, as well as learning a foreign language, and quest for a place called ‘home’ and the language called ‘mother tongue’. (…)Writing is my only way of absorbing (…) life.” (…) To get closer to everything that is outside of me. “Why do I write? To investigate the mystery of existence.

Jhumpa lahiri in other words review