The Namesake: A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri
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Book Reviews of The Namesake: A Novel
Book Review: Battered by the accidents of life and death
Summary: 5 Stars
Lahiri's tale of a Bengali family that emigrates from India to America "feels like a string of accidents, unforeseen, unintended, one incident begetting another." For Gogol Ganguli, the son of Ashoke and Ashima, "these events have formed [him], shaped him, determined who he is. . . . Things that should never have happened, that seemed out of place and wrong, these were what prevailed, what endured, in the end." Even Gogol's name is the result of an accident. Named after the Russian author, whose work his father was reading at the time of a nearly fatal railway crash, Gogol tries to, but ultimately cannot, escape either his name or his heritage.
After an arranged marriage and before his birth, Gogol's parents settle in Massachusetts, where they spend weekends entertaining and visiting other Bengali families. Gogol's father, Ashoke, slowly accommodates himself to his life as an American professor, but Ashima never stops considering Calcutta as her home. Gogol, quietly embarrassed by his parents' provincialism, does everything he can to shun his Indian heritage and to fit into a mostly white, Birkenstock-footed crowd. (He and his sister especially resent their long visits with their extended family in Calcutta.)
While Gogol is struggling to escape the accidents of his heritage, his father is ineffectively attempting to relate to his son; one of the most heart-wrenching episodes is when Ashoke presents his indifferent son with a copy of Gogol's stories. Lahiri is at her best in presenting these two themes: the duality experienced by second-generation Americans and the acid-sweet schizophrenia generated by the typical father-son relationship.
Lahiri's prose is also in top form. Her omniscient voice alternates among characters, sketching their outlines before zooming in on specific incidents or traits. Her story will cover the events of several years in a few pages, almost as if she were writing a biographical essay; then we will read in minute detail about a particular tragedy, a family reunion, or even an idiosyncratic yet everyday routine, such as how Ashima has purchased and maintained her various address books or when the young Gogol and his father walked along a beach to a lighthouse. I can understand how some readers feel that the expository sections are too emotionally detached, but the contrast surely heightens the impact of the more intimate passages.
The invisible presence throughout "The Namesake" is the ghost of Nikolai Gogol, and I can't speak to the parallels between the novel and his fiction. Like the protagonist of Lahiri's book, I too have a copy of his collected stories--a gift from a beloved friend--that has been sitting for many years on a bookshelf, untouched and unopened. It's time I crack it open.
Book Review: Enjoyable Narrative
Summary: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed reading this book by Jhumpa Lahiri. "The Namesake," is a sensitive, detailed and nuanced portrayal of the trials and tribulations of the Ganguli family. This book belongs to the new and growing genre of books that examines the lives of displaced people: the new immigrants to the US. Along with their dreams, the new immigrants carry with them a strong sense of cultural identity and history that sometimes can be a bit of burden to the children born to the immigrants. I found that at times Lahiri's narrative had a detached quality and there was no great drama or passion, except for the character of Moshimi who appears in the second half of the novel.
The book chronicles the life of the Ganguli family. The book begins with Ashoke Ganguli who comes from Calcutta, India to the US for his graduate studies, and upon completing his PhD becomes a faculty member in a university. He gets married to Ashima, and they become the proud parents of two children: Gogol and Sona. Like many Indian immigrants the parents are unprepared for naming their new born child on the day he is born, and therefore to fulfill a legal requirement decide to name their firstborn son as Gogol after the famous Russian writer by the same name. Herein lays the nub of the story.
The story is about Gogol's struggle growing up in America, and trying to assimilate both the American and Indian strands of his life. In a way this is a coming of age book on Gogol and how he eventually comes to accept life in his own terms. This book also chronicles how Gogol's parents surely and steadily carve out a life for themselves and realize their American dream: white picket fence house, cars, etc.
While reading the book, I had an eerie feeling that this book many have been semi-autobiographical and my feelings are not unfounded. Consider this: Lahiri's parents migrated from Calcutta, India to New England when she was a child; her father worked as a librarian and her mother was a teacher; Lahiri studied in Boston (which is where part of her novel is set); her family made frequent trips to Calcutta, India; many of the descriptions about growing up in the USA must have been drawn from Lahiri's own experience; and the book is about a Bengali family; and Lahiri is married to a non-Indian. Above all, Jhumpa real name is not Jhumpa, and like Gogol, her protagonist in the book that was a name that her parents gave her when she was born.
A hallmark of a good book is to see if the reader's attention is captured from the first to the very last page. Lahiri's book more than meets this requirement - letting the reader agonize between racing to the last page and having no more to read beyond.
Book Review: A rose by any other name still smells sweet
Summary: 5 Stars
The biggest controversy around Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake" -- her second book and first novel -- is if it is better than her Pulitzer Prize winning "Interpreter of Maladies", a book of short stories. Well, it turns out that her novel is not better than her previous book. But, that doesn't mean that this is a bad novel -- actually it is pretty good. The point is that her collected stories were so good that she set her standards too high, and some readers were disappointed.
The second controversy -- and this some people seem to be a way too harsh or narrow-minded-- was whether she can or not write long narratives. Taking "The Namesake" as exhibit one the answer is yes, she can, thank you very much. No matter how long her narrative is, Lahiri has absolute control of the language, plot and character development required to all good novels. If we feel that her narrative has some highs and lows -- this is not really a defect that is common in most books we read nowadays. And, mind you, her lows are not that low too qualify her debut novel as an awful book.
"The Namesake" cover about thirty years in the lives of a group of people having as central character Gogol Ganguli -- named after the famous Russian writer. The story of the man's name is worthy a book itself -- actually it is the central issue of the novel, most of the time. The Gangulis are a family of Indian that move to United Stated and have to establish their lives there. What rises as one of the most important themes in the novel -- and that is also present in Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" is the cultural clash between the two civilizations, or in other words, between Western and Eastern cultures.
Gogol is the product of his time and place. The man can nor connect to the US's culture, not to India's. He is a person who is torn between two worlds and can't come to terms to accept neither of them. Due to Lahiri's background and work, it seems that this is (or was) an issue that the writer has faced in her life and work.
Her prose is astonishing -- and so is her lexicon. The choice of words is crucial to develop her characters and their lives. And she never fails to choose the most beautiful and useful word to build her sentences.
After her two books, Lahiri is one to watch. Her books will be talked about for years to come. People will read and love her words for many years. And we're looking forward to her next book that will certainly surprise us again.
Book Review: A question of idnetity.
Summary: 5 Stars
Asihma's greatest event in America happens in the Subway. She returns home exhausted after a long shopping trip in which she bought dozens of presents for all her Indian relatives. The train is crowded and when she manages to leap out she forgets all her bags. She weeps freely knowing that she can't possibly afford to go back and buy it all again. However, Ashoke, her husband calls the Lost and found and the following day the bags are returned, not a teaspoon missing. This small miracle causes Ashima to become attached to America in a way she has previously not thought possible. I mention this part in the book since it made me smile with a lot of identification. This is also an experience that American borne cannot feel as surprised about as people coming from other countries. Indeed this is a miracle.
This is a book about life in between cultures. A sort of experience which is no doubt similar to many houses across America. All sorts of everyday questions about what is right and what is wrong in your culture and in the new culture and what makes you feel comfortable. I guess a stronger word would be that this is a book about the question of identity. The in between feeling is most strongly felt by the second generation. Gogol, Ashima's and Ashoke's son is the main character of this story. In a certain stage of his life Gogol seems to turn away from his culture, from his heritage, then he seems to come back, but not in the "right way". By the end of the story he seems to have reached a certain acceptance with a true "Gogol" identity, with a private heritage unique to himself and his parents which is above American or Indian culture.
This is a very good, very interesting book, mostly because it does not use any pompous language, vague metaphors or descriptions that are strange to the reader. This is a story about a family and its everyday life, coming from India and trying to adjust to America. Each part is seen from a different person's eyes. The story however centers on Gogol and his life in between, what he makes of his life and how much are his choices connected to how he sees and understands his parents and their past. What he wants to embrace and what he wants to get away from. A very enjoyable reading.
Book Review: What's in a name?
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an elegant, descriptive, charming study of the struggle for personal and cultural identity for a young Bengali man, from his birth to his thirtieth birthday.
"Stuck" with a name he feels hard to understand or to explain, Gogol Ganguli is the somewhat gifted offspring of a first-generation couple from Calcutta. Through and arranged marriage and another arranged scholarship, Gogol's parents find themselves the parents of a son in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1971. Struggling for a name that will allow the couple some sense of cultural identity and independence in this vast, cold, western country, Gogol's dad reaches into his past to informally name his son, thinking that they will have a chance to give him a more formal name at a less stressful, later time. But that is not to be.
The family adds a daughter, the son prospers well enough to attend Yale, and the children slowly reject many of the ways of their parents, assimilating rather than embracing American culture as their own. The parents move the family to the suburbs; the son goes off to college and then to graduate school in New York, accumulating one significant romantic episode. In New York, Gogol experiences the rich texture of American economic and social elitism, easily falling in with an upscale crowd and a glamorous new flame. Tragedy kills that relationship but allows Gogol to move on with his life for perhaps one last chance at love. Again, Gogol falls in quickly with a gorgeous woman. Let's not spoil the ending other than to say it is not implausible, predictable or unpleasant.
Without simplifying the obvious, Lahiri writes very, very well. The words, images, scenes, thoughts and episodes flow smoothly, with color and clarity. The book draws in the reader, brings a smile to your face, and adds a warm sense of acknowledgement as to the authenticity of characters and the culture. The reader experiences Boston, New Hampshire, Manhattan and Brooklyn and Calcutta in enjoyable detail. The Russian connection adds a point of revelation for Gogol when he learns the origin of his name as well as third dimension to the rich palate, as does Lahiri's attention to food, taste, color, temperature, trains, and seasons.