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Mar 11, 2008

Alicia rated it:

I know that real authors who write real books are not the same as the people in my writing groups. I understand that real authors can break rules that would drive the average writing group up a wall. Still ... I wished someone, anyone, would have given this book a critical read before it was published and told the author to cut some of the endless exposition. I even wish someone would have used that old trope: "show, don't tell." I hate getting that advice from writing groups, but More...

21 comments like (27 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Sandhya rated it:

It would only be fair to mention here that I saw Mira Nair's adaptation of the book before I actually got down to reading this novel recently. Having loved the film, I was keen to see how Lahiri had approached her characters and where its cinematic version stood in comparison.

I'll say two things. First, I feel this is one of the few times when the film more than does justice to the book and second, that the book itself is a deeply involving and affecting experience. In fa More...

1 comment like (19 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Waqar rated it:

This is yet another teary installation in the growing collection of books about and by the Indian diaspora, each of which competes with the others in the portrayal of the romantic nostalgia the main characters (Indians settled in the West) invariably feel towards their forsaken homeland, the clash of cultures they experience as they try to build a life in the West, and the inevitable dreariness of this life spent seemingly by necessity, not choice, in a land and culture that remain permanently More...

1 comment like (16 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2011

Barbara rated it:

It was so good to immerse myself in another of Jhumpa Lahiri's books. As with her other novels, I felt totally enrapt with the ebb and flow of her narrative. Her writing is lyrical and elegant, yet simple and warmly descriptive.

The focus of the immigration experience is clearly defined. One can easily sense the feelings of alienation of Lahiri's characters. Despite the attempts to become a part of American society, the older generation clings to their ethnic and national practises an More...

17 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Anna rated it:

After finishing the Namesake, my thoughts were drawn to my last roommate in college, an Indian woman studying for her PHD in Psychology. When I first moved in, she had just broken up with her white boyfriend. “It never would have worked out anyway…” she had cried. By the end of that same year she was flying of to Houston to be wed to a man she had only seen once, a marriage arranged by their parents. Many nights my other roommate (an exchange student from Berlin) and I would sit out on the balco More...

0 comments like (16 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2007

Emma rated it:

You've heard this story before. Junot Diaz, Julia Alvarez, Anzia Yezierska, and Edwidge Danticat are just a few of the authors who have told their own versions. The story they all have in common: The immigrant experience in the United States. Each of the above authors tackles this subject from a different enthnographic perspective, but the pull between the old (native) culture and the new (immigrant) one is always present.

Pulitzer prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri adds to this conve More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2007

Meredith rated it:

2.5/5
This book is a family saga from the initial immigration of a wife and husband from India to The States which goes on to talk about the life of their son. Their son, Gogol, appears to be confused as to what his identity is and is conflicted over honoring tradition and the culture of a new world. This book is somewhat entertaining and interesting, but really did not leave any profound marks. Most of the book is light and almost reads like a soap opera at times (going from one meaningl More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2010

Rachel rated it:

The perfect follow-up to her short story collection, Lahiri's The Namesake follows the story of Gogol and enraptures the reader as they struggle with him to come to terms with his Indian-American identity. As in Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri's writing is descriptive and poetic, and her story is layered with character and emotion. After reading The Namesake, I became an absolute Lahiri worshiper and am happy to admit that I have been placed under her saffron-scented spell.

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2008

Rachel rated it:

I came into this book figuring that I would like it, and I was not disappointed in the least. I took the book to work this week and spent my entire lunch hour on just one chapter, pouring over the exquisite descriptions of each scene exposited upon and the flow of the narration. I especially admire how Jhumpa, who covered decades in less than 300 pages, knew exactly which scenes to center on, and which to let roll by.

Not that this is overly important, but I found that the movie was More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2008

Aleetha rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 15, 2008

Yumi rated it:

a disclaimer: i didnt like the movie.

lahiris brilliant ability to keep all of the various narratives flowing smoothly, to capture the nuances of immigrant life, to portray the absolute difficulty of living one life in front of friends, and one of life in front of parents, shielded a very matter-of-fact part of this book that i missed until i saw the film.

dude, gogol is an asshole.

and i dont mean in that, im trying to find my way kind of naivete; i mean he g More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 31, 2008

Jeff rated it:

I'd read a few of Lahiri's short stories, and had seen the movie of The Namesake, but I put off reading it for a while.
It's definitely a worthwhile read. I gave it five stars, not because it's the greatest book I've ever read, but because it was the right book for me to read right now--there's something about where I am in my life that makes Gogol Ganguli's story resonate with me in a way that it probably wouldn't have when the book was first published.
Lahiri has a gift for captur More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2009

Roossy rated it:

Namesake was the story of Bengali’s family who had to face cultural differences in their life. Gogol, the main character of the story, was born in Boston. He was named after the Russian author, Nikolai Gogol. Gogol’s father was a big fan of Russian’s literatures and survived because of Nikolai’s book from a train accident in India. When Gogol was born, his parents wanted to wait to name him as the naming letter from Gogol’s great grandmother was delayed. However, the letter was lost and he was More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 25, 2011

DubaiReader rated it:

Brilliant book discussion!

Well, in spite of the fact that I found this novel a bit slow, a bit uninspiring, it certainly produced a fascinating discussion from our book group. We are a group of very varied backgrounds and cultures and everyone seemed to get something different from the book. There we several 'Oh yes!' moments for me, where I realised that I had missed the implications of something and then the penny dropped.

The central character is Gogol, a child of Benga More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 13, 2009

Kate rated it:

I liked the first 40 pages or so. I was very interested in the scenes in India and the way the characters perceived the U.S. after they moved. Bu soon I found myself losing interest. There were several problems. One is that Lahiri's novelistic style feels more like summary ("this happened, then this, then this) rather than a story I can experience through scenes. The voice was flat, and this was exacerbated by the fact that it's written in present tense. I never emotionally connected t More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

May 11, 2009

Annalisa rated it:

The prose in this book is beautiful. What also added to the novel was listening to the Indian-accented dialogue on the audio form. Normally I don't like female readers and where the main character is male it seems a train wreck waiting to happen. But where Gogle is so introspective, her quiet take on a quiet read was the perfect match.

For me, this book was more than anything about finding out who we are and where we belong in life. When you throw culture displacement into the mix, yo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2010

Sandybanks rated it:

Reading this book, I can’t help to be reminded of an Asian-American friend that I knew when I was a graduate student in an upstate New York university. I lived with several other foreign students from Asia in an off campus apartment, and by the end of my first semester, we found ourselves a nucleus for a small circle of variously hyphenated Asian Americans. Perhaps some of them were simply drawn to people who look like them, regardless of the differences in our backgrounds --- we were Indonesian More...

6 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2009

Kaitlynn rated it:

I read this book for my English class and I really enjoyed it. I was able to see more into the Indian culture, which is very interesting. The thing that i did not like about it was how whenever a new character or surrounding was introduced she went on for a while describing every last detail. I heard her short stories are really good, and in a short story she would not have time to do this, so I may read some of those. The movie that was made after the book is also really good, it leaves a l More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 14, 2009

Mary Jo rated it:

I liked this book but for some reason it left a weird sensation while I read it, like the main character, Gogol/Nikhil, was just walking around most of his life in a daze and it left me feeling like I was walking with him in that daze. (Maybe that's what the author intended?) His parents were both born in India and move to the US and Gogol was born there. Although he lead mostly a very Americanized life, I felt like he was struggling throughout most of it, mostly because of his name and not beca More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 27, 2008

Loren rated it:

Loren Brutsch
Mrs. Ebarvia
World Lit.
10/20/08
The Namesake
Draft
Jhumpa Lahiri’s emotional, compassionate story called The Namesake explains journey through life and the obstacles that thwart it. Lahiri is an excellent author and has also created Interpreter of Madalies and Unaccustomed Earth. The story follows the life of an artistic, passionate, ignorant Indian boy named Gogol, whom is given a Russian author’s name for covert reasons. He spends his life ashamed More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 13, 2008

Kim rated it:

This book was an incredible read. From the first word, the exquisite narration draws you into the lives of the characters. It was thought provoking, inviting the reader to examine his/her own sense of identity and how this changes over time often due to circumstances greater than us. The accidents of life are what shape us into who we are.
The Namesake is a tale of conflict between the past and the present, the old world and the new. It gives a clear picture of the concessions tha More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 29, 2008

Holli rated it:

I listened to this one on tape and really enjoyed the performance by Sarita Choudhury. I like the way Lahiri shifts tone when she shifts point of view. When we see the story from Ashima's point of view, the tone is restrained, timid, almost veiled. When the point of view shifts to Gogol, the tone becomes more forthright and a little angry. Overall, the book has a refined feeling to it. Even though the characters are trying to make their way in this culture and in this life, they maintain More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 31, 2008

Ercildoun rated it:

Michiko Kakutani begins her review for the New York Times, "Jhumpa Lahiri's quietly dazzling new novel, The Namesake, is that rare thing: an intimate, closely observed family portrait that effortlessly and discreetly unfolds to disclose a capacious social vision."

It's a novel about an immigrant family's imperfect assimilation into America. The story opens in 1968, as Nikhil's pregnant mother is mixing herself a Bengali American concoction of green chili peppers and Planters More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2008

Kevin rated it:

In the early 1960s, Ashoke Ganguli nearly died in his native India. The only thing that saved him, odd as it may sound, was a collection of short stories by Russian author Nikolai Gogol. Now, several years later and after having moved to the United States with his new wife, Ashima, Ashoke finds himself in a dilemma. In order to leave the hospital with their newborn son, they must provide administrators with a name for the baby. However, in keeping with Indian tradition, Ashoke and Ashima are wai More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2008

Ellie rated it:

I felt so bereft after I finished reading Interpreter of Maladies (by the same author) that I jumped right into this novel. It begins with an arranged marriage in Calcutta, India. The young bride, Ashima, is required to move to Boston with her new husband, who is attending graduate school. It follows the lives of this couple and their children, as they survive American culture while clinging to traditions from their own. Their children are born as Americans and are therefore fully immersed in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2008

Skylar rated it:

Not normally a reader of contemporary literary fiction, I was hesitant to tackle The Namesake. It was, however, recommended by multiple friends. Finding it to be written in present tense, something I normally detest in fiction, I hesitated once again. After a page or two, I ceased to notice and became lost in the story of one Indian family's struggle to assimilate to America, of generational differences, and of a young man's desire to pull away from his heritage and then back again.

More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 26, 2007

Eileen rated it:

Sometimes, when you read a story, the author will state the the story is true, but the names and details have been changed to protect the identity of the characters. Well, 'The Namesake' was clearly not a story about my life, but the novel was full of details from my life, all the little things that would have been changed if it was actually my story.
Really, the premise of our stories are similar. Asian parents move to the States and their kids grow up somewhere between the two cultures, n More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2008

Susan rated it:

There are moments of simple beauty and poignancy in this book. There are also passages chronicling some of the more mundane details of domesticity that have a monotonous, obligatory feel to them, as if the author is no more than a jaded reporter covering a familiar beat. The former points will no doubt make up for the latter for many readers. The plot gently spins out the story of a Bengali couple, Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli, and their eldest child Gogol, whose name reflects the contradiction of More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2007

Z rated it:

First of all, I must say that Jhumpa Lahiri is an observer of human behaviour and an analyst of human nature like no other. A clear, compassionate voice presents a vast array of characters, each very different from the next, such that you can slip into the mould of any of their personalities and truly understand their motivations.

The Namesake is about Gogol Ganguli, born to Bengali parents in America, and the story of life as an ABCD -- the now-hackneyed American Born Confused Desi, More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 16, 2011

علی rated it:

In spite of Lahiri following Gogol / Nikhil all way down to the end, (whom I don’t see very much interesting, neither sympathic nor antipathic), my heart is fully with Ashima: “she who is limited”. Opening chapter with her giving birth, is a brilliant start, as it’s also her new birth in US after another rebirth when she marrys in Culcutta: “her last moments as Ashima Bhadori, before becoming Ashima Ganguli”, (wonderfull description). When ever comes to Ashima, Lahiri is more honest and delicate More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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