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The Namesake

Jhumpa Lahiri

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Jun 09, 2009 Candice rated it it was amazing

I just read this for the second time and enjoyed it just as much as the first. It's a terrific book on so many levels. Lahiri has a gift of choosing words so perfectly as to make the reader feel the emotions she wants them to feel. It's a story of a pair of Bengali Indian immigrants in an arranged marriage, and their children, particularly their eldest, a son they named Gogol. Named for his father's favorite author, Gogol goes through life straddling the immigrant/American line. Like a normal te ...more

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Jul 08, 2008 Ray rated it liked it

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I immensely enjoyed spending a Saturday morning with this quick read. However, I wish there had been a little more substance to have indulged in.

This is the tale of a marriage, an immigration, a family, a boy becoming a man. Unfortunately it's far from a seamless narrative and these various pieces and bits of exposition jumble together in a confusing way sometimes.

The story begins with Ashoke, the patriarch, deciding to move to America to pursue his studies as a engineer because of a near-death I immensely enjoyed spending a Saturday morning with this quick read. However, I wish there had been a little more substance to have indulged in.

This is the tale of a marriage, an immigration, a family, a boy becoming a man. Unfortunately it's far from a seamless narrative and these various pieces and bits of exposition jumble together in a confusing way sometimes.

The story begins with Ashoke, the patriarch, deciding to move to America to pursue his studies as a engineer because of a near-death experience involving a train. A fellow passenger on the train tells him just before the accident that he regrets coming back to India after lived in the US. He only came back, he says, because his wife if unhappy.

Shortly thereafter, the fellow passenger and hundreds of others die when the train jumps the track. And next thing you know, Ashoke is leaving for the US. His characterization prio had given no clue that this was even on his mind. His mother and father are bereft that he is leaving. And on his first visit home he arranges a marriage because he is lonely in the US.

Maybe some implicit American dream was supposed to be enough to explain to me why this character even left Calcutta, but I didn't get it. And a result, as interesting and engaging as everything was that follows, without understanding the motivation behind this pivotal decision, nothing else totally made sense. After all, Ashima is sad for years. Gogol and Sonia always feel stuck between two worlds. And Ashoke's initial wanderlust ends up with him mostly hanging with other Begalis. At the end, I guess I was left wondering what all their anguish had been for.

And this is a big spoiler, but Ashoke's early death felt contrived. Like its only purpose was to give Gogol an opportunity to make necessary changes in his life.

Despite all of this, I really liked the experience of reading the "Namesake." And Gogol's struggle to become his own person, and his parents' reactions to that, were very interesting and certainly struck a chord with me. ...more

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Jul 14, 2007 Sarani Rangarajan rated it liked it

The book seems to be real. Yes, there is nothing fancy about it, there is nothing out of the way about the way the story is told. It is merely gripping. I knew the story before I read it, and frankly, after Jhumpa's short stories, I wasn't expecting to be held to the book. But it has such insight! Every line rings true, and even if I felt odd flickers of irritation*, the story held me. I was afraid that the book would be too long, or too short. But she ends it at a point that you can see the fut ...more

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