In Other Words

I have read everything Pulitzer Prize winning author

Jhumpa Lahiri has written. I read her books slowly and carefully so I can absorb her beautifully written words. Although many fans feel her stories of immigrant families must be about her life, they are just stories. In Other Words is Jhumpa Lahiri’s first memoir and it is most certainly written from deep within her heart. This is her journey to establish herself and her family in Italy, a long held dream she has finally made reality. She has a passionate love affair with learning Italian, a language she has studied for many years but feels she has not mastered. Ms. Lahiri has challenged herself to only read and write in Italian for the few years she is living there. This is a thoughtful, pleasant read if you are interested in language, the written and spoken words that help us communicate ourselves to everyone else all over the world. This book is a bit repetitive but because it is short and wonderfully expressed, it is so very easy to read. It reminds me of another book about language, the love and learning of Hindi (Dreaming in Hindi by Katherine Russell Rich) and the science of how we are affected and emotionally attached by our first language compared to those that are learned later in life. I recommend In Other Words only if this subject truly interests you - otherwise you may be too disappointed it is not one of her breathtaking family sagas.