Summary

In the section “Impossibility” Jhumpa writes about her realization that there are certain writers whose abilities she will never be able to reach or surpass. Since she’s begun writing in Italian a quote by Carlos Fuentes in which he advises other writers that there are “certain heights one will never be able to reach” (p. 89). She feels that in Italian she is not striving to achieve the greatness of master writers but is instead challenged by her desire to reach the heart of the Italian language. She goes on to discuss the ways in which technology has made other parts of our lives easier but cannot do anything to make it easier to learn to write in a foreign language.

She expands the example of the lake she wanted to cross into an ocean to demonstrate what a large task she...