The Namesake: A Novel
by Jhumpa Lahiri
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Book Reviews of The Namesake: A Novel
Book Review: Caught between two cultures
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Namesake" is the story of Gogol Ganguli, a man born to Indian parents who moved to America shortly after they were married. Gogol's name has always been a source of deep resentment for him, as it is neither Indian or American. Eventually Gogol opts to have his name legally changed before he leaves for college. In addition to adjusting to his new name, Gogol continues with a struggle he's faced his entire life: How to relate to and maintain his Indian culture while living on American soil. Gogol rejects most things about his heritage, preferring to lead a more "Americanized" lifestyle. His choices create a barrier between him and his family, but try as he might, Gogol never feels completely at ease within the American culture, either. He establishes a successful career for himself and has has several serious relationships, but Gogol never really finds a comfortable place for himself in this world. Eventually he finds happiness with an Indian woman, of all people, who relates to him on so many levels. However, Moushumi has her own way of rebelling, and at the end of the novel we find Gogol back at the very place his life began, where he begins to rediscover himself.
I fell in love with this book after reading the first few pages, and I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed it even more than author Jhumpa Lahiri's collection of short stories, "Interpreter of Maladies." Lahiri writes in a simple yet emotional style that is rich in detail. Although the novel revolves around Gogol, Lahiri occasionally shifts perspective and gives the reader a glimpse of the story from the eyes of Gogol's parents and Moushumi. All of the characters make a lot of mistakes, but I was able to easily relate to and empathize with each of them.
This is a book about family, identity, heritage, and self-discovery. You don't have to be the child of immigrants in order to relate to the process of pulling apart from your family and discovering the person you're destined to become. I think this book has something to offer everyone, and it also happens to be a beautiful, poignant story. "The Namesake" is a must-read.
Book Review: Excellent Tale, But Poor Delivery
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a lovely and at times depressing tale that touches upon a long existent issue about the immigration experience. The emptiness, longing, hope, and desires are endless in the mind of a foreigner. It's nice that an author, who's a female Indian with the experience to write about it, is gaining attention and making readers realize the importance of knowing our own culture, and how other cultures influence, and at times complete change or manipulate, our own perspective on identity.
"The Namesake" is, at best, a nice summer read. The main problem I had with this book was its lack of emotion and focus. At times it felt as if the author, or narrator, was focusing way too much on providing details to buildings, clothing, and other slightly irrelevent and dull descriptions. But when it came to character development from the aftermath of one event after another, description of the character's thoughts and emotions was very rushed, at times unexplained, making the plot kind of dull, unexciting, and empty. I think with more dialogue, action, and detail on character development and emotion, the plot would have been riveting and exciting, and would have made Gogol's story more intriguing and interesting. There are a few well-written moments about Gogol's thoughts about his namesake, but his love affairs are barely worth reading, very forgettable, and just not interesting at all. I was hoping that there would be a punch after each chapter, making you want to read more, making your heart flutter, tugging your emotions. This book doesn't do that, surprisingly. Even the central event of the novel, when Gogol's father was nearly killed in a train accident when a book by Nikolai Gogol saved his life, thus being the source of Gogol's namesake, didn't really affect me. I suppose the main problem I have with this book is the way it's written. Simple, which is fine, but not intriguing enough.
However, I don't regret reading this book. It's nothing brilliant, it could have been written more affectively. But it's a nice, refreshing debut from an author who has lots of potential to write better.
Book Review: sharp observations
Summary: 5 Stars
I picked up this book totally by accident - without knowing anything about the author and her previous work. I was at an airport and the wait was long, so I went to a bookstore. After browsing quite a bit, I bought this one to kill some time.
This is a very charming book. It chronicles the Ganguli family from 1968 to the present time. Ashoke is a college professor at a small college in the Boston suburb. His wife, Ashima, is a housewife he brought back from Calcutta in India. They have a son (Gogol) and a dauther (Sonia). The title of the book concerns the name of their son - Gogol - which itself is the last name of a great Russian writer.
It's not a fascinating story, that is, nothing dramatic happens in this book. All the events in the Gangulis' lives are experienced by thousands of American families everyday, such as going to a college, getting a job, throwing a party, going on a trip, and so on.
However, the charming part of the book lies in how Lahiri tells the story. She pays great attention to details. Reading this book is like watching a movie. The images are so vivid that you feel like you are right there. Reading this book sometimes reminds me of some classic Russian or French novels I read long time ago.
The identity crisis of Gogol and the cultural conflict between him and his parents are very typical in immigrant families. At one point, Lahiri makes a great observation about being a foreigner through the thoughts of Ashima, who felt isolated all the time. 'For being a foreigner, Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy - a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been ordinary life, only to discover that that previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding. Like pregnacy, being a foreigner, Ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect'. What a sharp observation!!
Book Review: A Rich Story of Acceptance and, Ultimately, Love
Summary: 5 Stars
Like many other commenters, I picked this book up after I had read Jhumpa Lahiri's excellent collection of short stories, THE INTERPRETER OF MALADIES. I don't usually read short stories, actually, so I was glad to see the author move into the novel form that I tend to prefer.
THE NAMESAKE is the story of the Ganguli family, beginning with young Ashima and Ashoke as they get married and move from Calcutta to America to begin a new life in an unknown world. They surround themselves with fellow Bengalis in their new life, but they do slowly find themselves adapting to American culture. This assimilation process becomes even clearer once they have children, as their American-born son Gogol and daughter Sonia want to blend in and enjoy all of the same things their friends and eventually their lovers do. There's a particularly touching explanation about the Gangulis' decision to start having a Christmas tree at the insistence of young Gogol.
The novel unfolds chronologically, and the focus shifts to young Gogol as a teenager, student, and then young professional as he experiences the identity crisis of a first-generation Indian-American. Gogol doesn't always make the easy choices, and he often hurts his parents in his pursuit of a more "American" way of life, but Lahiri makes him a very sympathetic main character. As the reader, I really wanted Gogol to find what it is that would make him happy, with the world, with his family, and most of all with himself.
While the overriding theme of the novel is cultural identity, at its heart THE NAMESAKE is also about the relationship between a father and a son. As Gogol grows older, he begins to learn just what he represents to his father, and as a result how much more gratitude and love he feels for the man he has lost. It is this central relationship that has its culmination in the novel's bittersweet final chapter. After a lifetime of looking, Gogol realizes that he had always had the love that he needed, he just hadn't looked for it in the right place.
Book Review: Graceful and elegant simplicity...
Summary: 5 Stars
After thoroughly enjoying Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize-winner, Interpreter of Maladies, I was anxious to start her first full-length novel, Namesake. This young and talented author has proven that her Pulitzer was not a fluke.
The story begins in India. Like most Bengali's, Ashoke and Ashima have an arranged marriage. They move to America when Ashoke is offered a fellowship. When he is eventually offered a professorship at MIT, they decide to try and make a life for themselves in this unfamiliar land. Ashima gives birth to a son (Gogol) and a daughter (Sonia), and these first generation Americans embrace American food, customs and culture. While not ashamed of their Bengali heritage, the children are more bored by the old ways. Lahiri takes this story through their early adult years, and shows us how hard it is to straddle both cultures.
Lahiri's book is so appealing in that she writes of universal themes. First, she shows us how difficult it can be to make a life in a new homeland, and the guilt and problems resulting from first generation Americans who have a foot in both cultures. Also, that love that grows from arranged marriages is often more enduring than marriages that are based on love. And finally, how the values of our parents become more important as you get older-and sometimes when it is too late. The importance of names is also a major theme in Namesake. Sometimes, your acceptance of your name is the key to accepting yourself as a person. There are themes that appeal to almost all of us.
Lahiri's writing is fully satisfying, but not in a rich or overblown way (much like the many foods she describes in Namesake). Her prose is graceful and elegant, but with a surprisingly simple style. Lahiri has a way of looking into the heart and soul of her characters without a lot of excess. Also, I found her characters haunting. All in all, I hope that this fine author is already working on her next book.