In Other Words

A Memoir

By: Jhumpa Lahiri, Ann Goldstein - translator

Narrated by: Jhumpa Lahiri

From the best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize winner, a powerful nonfiction debut—an “honest, engaging, and very moving account of a writer searching for herself in words.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

In Other Words is a revelation. It is at heart a love story—of a long and sometimes difficult courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward, true mastery always eluded her.

Seeking full immersion, she decides to move to Rome with her family, for “a trial by fire, a sort of baptism” into a new language and world. There, she begins to read, and to write—initially in her journal—solely in Italian. In Other Words, an autobiographical work written in Italian, investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice.

Presented in a dual-language format, this is a wholly original book about exile, linguistic and otherwise, written with an intensity and clarity not seen since Vladimir Nabokov: a startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention.

Read by the Author, in both English and the original Italian

Confessioni d'amore a una lingua

Caspita! La mia scrittrice Americana prediletta diventò un’ autrice tutta Italiana! Non ne sapevo un bel nulla di questo suo lato segreto, la mia sorpresa è così ancora più grande. Eppoi questo testo è inpeccabile, tutto lei.
Per me questa narrativa sa del Secondo Dopoguerra, Morante, Ginzburg, Silone, magari Pavese o Primo Levi. Antiquata in un senso positivissimo, una prosa profondamente radicata nelle tradizioni letterarie novecentesche. Be’, mai dei predecessori migliori!
Tale cambiamento linguistico è ben raro nella letteratura. Mi viene in mente “L’analfabeta” di Ágota Kristóf, ma il suo è un resoconto assai scarno rispetto a questo saggio serio. Ognuno che riflette sulla lingua, su qualsiasi lingua, deve leggere „In altre parole”. Spero non ci vuole sottolineare tale obbligo di pensare spesso alle lingue, all’identità.
Certamente, questa mi è subito diventata un’opera arciimportante, stracolma di idee e contenuto molto compatti. Quanto alla versione sonora, per me è decisamente il libro audio dell’anno 2016.
Penso alle mie lotte diurne con l’Inglese e non vorrei aggiungere molto alla pronuncia della signora Lahiri. Dimenticavo per interi minuti che ella non è italofona, e questo non è poco. Una cosa però deve comprendere: senza l’uso corretto (e frequente) del raddoppiamento consonantico il flusso del discorso non sarà mai completamente autentico. Penso una seconda lettura avrebbe anche portata dei risultati migliori. Comunque sia, l’autrice ci offre un’esperienza del tutto gradevole.
Raccomando i lettori bilingui ascoltino ambedue le registrazioni. La traduzione Inglese del testo originale dà effetti sorprendenti, ci mette qualcosa di più, qualcosa di diverso. Tutto sommato lo considero un capolavoro e lo riascolterò varie volte di sicuro.
Penso a Giumpa con calore. Penso in un certoqualmodo sia arrivata a casa. Benvenuta in Italia, benvenuta nell’Italiano!

Her passion in pursuit of the Italian language.

Loved every minute of it. A masterpiece of language learning. A blueprint for others to follow as they also learn Italian.

Beautiful meditation on language and art

As a journalist who has studied a foreign language, lived abroad, and spent considerable time in Italy, I enjoyed Jhumpa Lahiri's exploration of the themes of exile and finding a new voice in her writing through another language (in her case, a third). This slim volume, translated from her new-found Italian to English, her language of core competency, reflects the often staccato style of a foreign speaker, which felt repetitive at first. That's forgivable, because Lahiri makes you co-pilot on her journey to navigate her way through this new, more romantic language, one that makes her feel more at home and creative, but one in which, to her own admission, she still struggles. What I missed from this book was more of her story (she moves her family to a new country and rarely discusses those struggles or sacrifices). I also craved more details of her new surroundings, the gorgeous city of Rome, which she leaves mostly to the reader's imagination. This book, which seems to be part journal, is almost more of a lengthy essay fit for a literary magazine than a book-length memoir. I was shocked when, three hours into my listening, the book ended. For the remaining three and a half hours, she reads the same book in Italian (a beautiful Italian, but still Italian)!

Language As A Lover

When I first heard that Jhumpa Lahiri had chosen to put her writing career on hold in order to pursue her long-term passion for the Italian language, my initial reaction was similar to the one many sports fans had when Michael Jordan decided to come out of retirement to follow his dream of becoming a professional baseball player, namely admiration, perplexity and a little bit of curiosity.

Why would a wildly successful author, Pulitzer Prize/Pen Award winner, awarded with the 2014 National Humanities Medal, take such a leap of faith?
The answers to this question are complex and profound and after reading this short but very poignant memoir, my sense is that Lahiri herself doesn't necessarily have definite answers.

Written in Italian, "In Other Words" include a few fictional stories, which Lahiri acknowledges were based on her own experiences during the two years she and her family lived in Italy on what she calls her "linguistic pilgrimage".

I am not sure that the author would be able to replicate her success in her new adopted language, so far it seems to me that is a work in progress.

Self-doubt, the search of identity and a foreboding sense of understanding many cultures but not completely fitting or belonging to any of them, is at the center of this short memoir.

On a personal level, I felt a deep sense of connection and empathy with the author and how aptly she describes the sense of wonder one can experience when learning a new language, a process that can be rewarding and enlightening, but also intellectually exhausting.

I felt that Lahiri so accurately described my own experience while reading in a second language - in my case English - when she asserts:

"I believe that reading in a foreign language is the most intimate way of reading".

Lahiri's account of her quest to master the Italian language struck me at times as a little bit self-serving and redundant, but as a whole I truly enjoyed this introspective, thoughtful meditation on the central role language plays in our lives and most importantly in the lives of writers.

At this point in her life, she sounds to me like a writer in transition, a woman looking for answers who can't stand still because she is trying to figure out the next chapter in her writing career.

Although Lahiri's narration felt a bit flat and I thought it lacked intensity on her delivery, I've come to appreciate memoirs read by the authors because ultimately they are better at expressing their own words.

Excellent writing but terrible narration

Every part of me wants to give this at least 4 stars for the writing. Sigh. The narration was so monotonous and inspirited. I hope they consider a rerecord.