Jhumpa Lahiri

Consequences

Media: Audio
Read by: Deepti Gupta, Carlotta Brentan, Cassandra Campbell, Ari Fliakos, Michael Obiora
Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Lahiri is such an adept story-teller, and it’s always a delight to read her collections. There are eight stories ranging in listening length from 20 minutes to almost one hour. If there’s any commonality between the stories it is that they were all written in Italian - not Lahiri’s main language - and translated by her, to her primary language of English. It was because of this that I put off reading the book, not seeing the point, and fearing something’s may have been lost in translation.

There are several themes that reappear in the stories, the main one being that they all involve people moving continents for major slabs of their lives. Some for professional reasons, others for reasons of life or death.

She describes an aspect of expat life in her last story of the book, mysteriously entitled, “Dante Alighieri”. In it one of the characters travels twice yearly between the East coast of America to Italy and back, twice yearly. She’s so blasé about this long air flight that she doesn’t even look at the scenery from the cab window as she leaves the airport to travel to her homes. I know the feeling, having split my life between Australia and America for over ten years.

Most of the short stories are set in Rome, but I didn’t get much feel of Italian life coming through. The stories could have been set in any Western European country experiencing mass migration from Africa and Asia.

Many of the stories, “The Steps” in particular, hinge upon individuals doing innocuous acts that end up having severe and unexpected consequences. Set on the Steps in Rome, where young people lark around as in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we get the feel of the ancient city and the unchanging nature of the human condition. “The Steps” and “The Well-lit House” which quietly describes the bigotry and poverty that refugees can be subject to in western countries, were my favorite stories.

Roman Stories is a quiet and gentle read that packs its punches when least expected. Recommended.… (plus d'informations)