Jhumpa Lahiri has became one of my favourite authors and anything by her is definitely a yes-autobuy for me. But whilst I can literally read her whole shopping list and gave this one a 4 stars overall, Roman Stories was also listed as one of my most dissapointed reads in 2023.

So yes, whilst I do love this book, I also somewhat hated it as well. And I might be the only person feeling this but coming from one of your favourite authors, and an anticipated read at that, Roman Stories fulfilled my cravings for Lahiri's writing but also - overall - it felt very very underwhelming.

Lahiri's writing has never failed to dissapoint me. I've read Whereabouts twice, and her non-fiction essays on her struggle to translate Italian and learning the language itself has made her one of the authors that I will read anything and everything that she wrote. Her ability to write out her struggle and her isolation in the most quiet ways had led me to love her writing very much.

Roman stories is a collection that is set in Rome and showed the struggles of both the people there that felt unseen in their daily lives. Its interesting when I think about it, how the overall collection not only focuses on the immigrants that came to Italy to learn and live through the culture and language, its also focuses on the isolation of the people who grew up in Rome and experienced Rome throughout their lifetime but still felt like the city and language like a stranger. That's what appealed to me for Roman Stories - its in the slow and everyday lives of people that can collectively felt the same thing, wether you are from the country or not. The lull and feeling of loneliness that exerts in every detail and every story comes from the her deep-rootedness into her crisis with the Italian language as well. Its fascinating when Lahiri tried to somewhat project her insecurities through the characters and their lives and this makes such an interesting character study for some of her stories.

There were three stories that had been translated by Todd Pornowitz - which also happened to be the few faves of mine in the collection -:
1) P's Parties - 4.75🌟
Loved this one so so much. The story revolves on what could have been and the dilemma of loving someone that should not be yours.

2) Well-Lit House - 5🌟
One of the best in this collection. The concept of home and how its different from everyone. Sadly, when we are seen as an outsider, the house that looks like home to us, can be a place of darkness to everyone else. It questions on how, a home is only entailed to the people who speak and is born into the language and the city? Good lord this was such a good story.

3) Notes - 4.75🌟
A woman's spiral due to the notes that she received. It shows the anonymity and rejection to the people that does not look the same to us. One of the best in the collection as well.

The three stories that were translated by Protnowitz for me was clever and so-well done. The rest of the stories were translated from Italian by Lahiri herself, in the same attempt that she tried with Whereabouts. And what's interesting for me is that the rest of the stories somewhat reflect her struggle in translating them as well - in the ways that she felt as an outsider whilst loving the language. Its such an interesting take for all of the stories and I do have some favs too, especially the first half of the collection.

But what made it felt underwhelming was how long it felt whilst reading this. It was slow, and not the kind of good slow that I enjoyed and it almost led me to have a reading slump :') And thats what felt underwhelming for me - its in how these stories do come across to be good but it also is so dreary that (epsecially the second part) that it gives you the sense of helplessness that I don't particularly enjoy.

Regardless to say, I still do love this book. This collection may not be the best from her but its also one that is experimental and fundamental in getting to know Lahiri as an author. Her struggle with Italian is somethng so profound and yet makes you want to root for her.

4🌟 for this collection!

Thank you to the Times Reads team for this ! I truly appreciate it!