Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri: Falls short of expectation on multiple counts

Jhuma Lahiri writes wonderfully well. She can create pictures with words and her characters always come alive in her books. The Kolkata house where Subhas and Udayan grew up and the lowland in front of the house that flooded in the rains appeared in front of my eyes as I started reading the first few pages of the book. The two brothers with their different temperaments, one pushing the boundaries and other very cautious also got characterized well and then……..
Now let me explain why I say Lowland falls short; that too on many counts. Good characterization, great atmosphere creation for Kolkota of the 70s but where is the plot in Lowland? The plot disappears after the first few chapters when the story moves to America with Udayan. I got the same feeling  about the Naxalbari movement description. It was dealt without depth, almost like reciting from pages of history books and was given cursory treatment. The Naxalbari movement is very small part of the book anyway and the author seems out of depth describing it.

It is said that fiction is deeply rooted in real life experiences and authors can write about something genuinely only if they have experienced it. Great authors overcome this by creating imaginary worlds and the world loves J K Rowlings and Harry Potter because of that.  Jhumpa Lahiri is however stuck with Kolkota and US East Coast university towns where educated Bengali diaspora feel a tussle of Indian upbringing on American soil. In all her books this is the recurring theme and I for one have had enough of it!
Of the characters, Gauri comes out as a very un-motherly, unthankful person and I could not identify with her at all. Subhash dies quickly in the book and the ideology he was driven with, remains unconvincing. Udayan seems to accept things as they come without much passion. Not that all books need a hero but when all characters are unlikeable so becomes the book.  As a whole the book remains unsatisfying.
So to end, my take on the book is that, Lowland is well written but an unimpressive book.