The Namesake: A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.60 You Save: $8.40 (60%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Namesake: A Novel
Book Review: Exploring Assimilation and Loss of Identity
Summary: 4 Stars
Gogol Ganguli is The Namesake of the title of this book. A first generation American, born to Bengali parents, Gogol is named after a Russian author is father admires. The name was given to him as a temporary name, while is parents await a letter from home in which a grandmother will send with his true name. The letter never arrives and Gogol becomes a name that never seems to fit, just as Gogol himself never seems completely at home in America or on his frequent trips back to his parent's home country.
I really liked the use of language in this book, as well as the description of a culture and customs I don't know very well. The depiction of the children of immigrants who seem caught between two worlds was portrayed very well. At times I did find Gogol a hard person to like, but I did understand his confusion about who he was.
A very good story about the difficulties of assimilation and loss of identity, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Gogol and his family's trials and tribulations in America.
Book Review: Caught Between Cultures
Summary: 3 Stars
He does not want his name. He does not want to be the quiet, obedient boy he's always been. He does not want to be a part of the Bengali traditions and parties and arranged marriages.
He is Gogol Ganguli, child of Indian immigrants, and one who wishes to be as American as his birth certificate. He seizes control of his own life at eighteen: he changes his name to Nikhil, and attempts to reinvent himself through college. He parties, he drinks, he has a few long-term and disastrous love affairs. And yet, after all his trouble to disengage himself from the life he has grown up with, he begins to return to it after his father's death. Their shared heritage is his only link to his father, and he returns to some of the Bengali ways and customs. He wants to be near his family again, and he starts dating a Bengali girl.
The Namesake, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, is ultimately about family themes. Heritage. Rebellion. The search for an identity. Love. The Ganguli family must learn to relate to each other, to overcome challenges, to accept each other's choices.
The book provokes discussions and realizations about the difficulties faced by immigrants; it draws the reader into the heartache of living in two worlds and being a part of none of them. It showcases the struggles of a family seeking to find where they belong and trying to adapt to the new culture around them, and it also displays the trying times that are a part of any family and will resonate with any reader.
Ultimately, however, I found this to be a depressing book. Despite how hard he tries, Gogol seems to be running in the wrong direction, and by thirty he has made somewhat of a mess of his life. It's a starkly realistic book - which naturally is a little depressing - but it does open the reader's eyes to cultural complexities. Additionally, Lahiri's writing style is beautiful, and she keeps the reader engaged and caring about the characters, whether or not he particularly likes them.
Book Review: Utterly Tedious
Summary: 1 Stars
Yet another couple from Calcutta comes to the US and settles in Cambridge for the husband to finish his PhD in engineering. They birth two children who rebel from their claustrophobic upbringing, yet attend prestigious schools and seek advanced degrees.
The characters in Lahiri's stories are almost interchangeable. There's the overbearing parents who feel isolated in their new dwellings who seek comfort by recreating Bengali customs and making friends almost exclusively with people from their homeland. Then there are the kids who don't feel like they belong anywhere. Throw in a plethora of advanced degrees. Couple that with deep seated melancholy, and you'll immediately understand the background of her work.
This is a tedious, repetitious and unilluminating book. The author compulsively explains herself, never giving the reader the opportunity to make observations without her guidance.
Book Review: Poor condition
Summary: 1 Stars
This product arrived looking like it had been dug out of a barrel, pages bent and dirty looking. I haven't wanted to pick it up and read it.
More Customer Reviews:
1 2
1 2