The Lowland

Gauri의 이기적인 선택을 Bela처럼 마구 비난하고 싶은 충동이 여러 차례 들었지만 그의 입장을 (조금이나마) 이해하고 응원할 수 있어서 독서가 마냥 고통스럽지만은 않았다. 훌륭한 영화 <원더>처럼 Subhash와 Bijoli, Gauri와 Bela의 시선과 생각 그리고 입장을 고루 살펴볼 수 있는 서술 시점의 변화도 마음에 든다. 다만 이 모든 고통의 원흉(?) Udayan의 입장에서 생각할 수 있는 분량이 책의 마지막 몇 페이지에 불과하다는 점이 다소 아쉽기는 하다. 작가의 다른 작품들을 매우 감명깊게 본 터라 극적인 몇 가지 사건에 크게 의존하는 이 소설의 구조가 살짝 실망스러웠지만 익숙한 뉴잉글랜드 지방의 분위기와 Gauri의 철학 여정을 따라가는 즐거움이 실망을 상쇄해주었다. 검색해보니 작가의 최신 산문집도 여러 권 번역되었던데 기회가 닿으면 읽어봐야겠다.  

 

 

p. 33. He remembered the silly signals he and Udayan used to send to one another, pressing the buzzer, making each other laugh. He didn't know how to respond to the message Sinha was transmitting, which Udayan so readily received. 

 

p. 41. But he was no longer in tollygunge. He had stepped out of it as he had stepped so many mornings out of dreams, its reality and its particular logic rendered meaningless in the light of day. 

 The difference was so extreme that he could not accommodate the two places together in his mind. In this enormous new country, there seemed to be nowhere for the old to reside. There was nothing to link them; he was the sole link. 

 

pp. 48-49. He was proud to have come alone to America. To learn it as he once must have learned to stand and walk and speak. He'd wanted so much to leave Calcutta, not only for the sake of his education but also -he could admit this to himself now- to take a step Udayan never would. 

 In the end this was what had motivated him. And yet the motivation had done nothing to prepare him. Each day, in spite of its growing routine, felf uncertain, improvisational. 

 

p. 76. Unable to fathom his future, severed from his past.

 

p. 91. The most ordinary details of his life, which would have made no impression on a girl from Calcutta, were what made him distinctive to her.

 

p. 137. Udayan had given his life to a movement that had been misguided, that had caused only damage, that had already been dismantled. The only thing he'd altered was what their family had been.

 

p. 149. It was the middle of the day, the sun directly overhead. A bright blue sky, transparent clouds. A time of day lacking mystery, only an assertion of the day itself. As if the sky were not meant to darken, the day not meant to end.

 

p. 151. Udayan had wanted a revolution, but at home he'd expected to be served

 

p. 240. The tree seemed more overwhelming when it lay on the gorund. 

 

p. 308. Perhaps the worst form of visitor: one who had refused to leave.