This is a collection of short stories that aren’t necessarily linked but feel like they are. They are all set in the city of Rome and many of them share the theme of outsiders or newcomers to the Italian city. Many of them are told in the first person or in a very close third person. There is a mix of male and female protagonists but most are people who might be considered in the second half of their life. Many of them are looking back at their lives and their years spent in Rome.
I’m lumping the stories together because, having finished the collection, I’m having trouble differentiating them in my memory. There are distinct scenes that stick out – a woman in a restaurant, a young girl on some public steps, a party in a house outside the city limits – but the voices in each story did not feel particular distinct. Regardless of age or gender, the voices in each story sounded largely the same. I kept waiting for the stories to demonstrate some link to one another because that similarity of voice made me feel like I was reading one long story.
The setting is where the stories most come alive. There is heat and sun and food and crowds and if you’ve been fortunate enough to visit Rome, you will find much to jog your memories here. Rome is a city that I don’t have trouble understanding when I hear about people visiting and deciding to move there. (Probably not a coincidence that Roman Holiday is my favourite movie.) At the same time, in my experience of travelling in Italy, it was the place in Europe where I felt the most obviously foreign. Even as a white person with European ancestry, Italians seemed to immediately know I wasn’t Italian. I can imagine that outsider status would be even more prevalent for someone of non-European background. That’s probably the most interesting thing that Lahiri explores in this story but I also found myself wishing she went further with that theme. Characters are identified as being from elsewhere but that otherness is never expanded upon and never felt fully explored to me.
The other main interest point of this collection is that Lahiri wrote it in Italian and then translated it herself (along with Todd Portnowitz). I found this fascinating because I’m so interested in the process. Lahiri must have known the stories would be translated into English for broader publication. Did she decide right away that she would be the translator? Did writing in Italian bring her different ideas or characters? Did it create a different cadence to her language? I’ve read The Namesake but otherwise I’m not familiar enough with Lahiri’s work to catch some of those differences.
Karissa Reads Books 
Lahiri has actually written a book about her experiences learning Italian that I think includes her process of writing in Italian knowing that it will be translated – In altre parole, and the English translation is called In Other Words. I’ve never read anything else by her, but that’s on my (very long) list. As you say, it’s such an interesting concept!
The place in Europe I’ve felt most foreign was Sweden. That might be a reflection of the fact that when I was in Sweden for a work trip I was in a small town, whereas when I’ve travelled for pleasure it’s generally been to big cities. There were so many big and small culture shocks every day. It was more akin to the dislocation I felt in Peru than anything I’ve experienced in Europe (including in Rome).
I didn’t realize she’d written about that experience – I’ll have to look for that because I am fascinated by the idea of it all.
I haven’t visited Sweden but I can imagine that I’d feel foreign there too. All of the foreign travel I did as a kid was in Asia so I was used to being very obviously an outsider there. Then my first trip to Europe took me to German, Poland, and the Czech Republic where it wasn’t obvious until I started talking! So going to Italy on a later trip and thinking I might blend in a little bit then being immediately recognized as a foreigner was more surprising to me.
I’ve never been to Italy, and I’d love to remedy that some day. In the meantime, books like these are a trip for me to read 🙂 I’ve never heard of this one, but I’m always sort of annoyed when short stories blend in together like that – it should have just been a novel, I always feel.
I hope you get to go one day! I loved visiting Italy.
I do kind of feel like I’d rather have had a novel. Or at least stories where the characters actually overlapped so it felt more linked.
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