A wonderful read Beautifully written, captivating characters, great story. So wonderful my husband read it after I did and felt the same.
Just blah I had high expectations for this book, but it was just blah. It's superficial, with no insight behind it. The author seemed to spend more time dreaming up outfits for her characters than substance for their personalities. I'm sorry to say this book was kind of a waste of time; it's the kind of writing you might appreciate to have, in a magazine, while you're waiting at the dentist's office...not something you'd like to see dragged out into a whole novel and paraded as literature. Blah.
A warm portrait of an immigrant family dealing with America Immigrants of all sorts have built America, and this book profiles an Indian immigrant family. The challenges they face are described with warmth and sensitivity as they confront the larger culture around them.
It's easy to imagine minor substitutions, and this being the story of nearly any immigrant community, struggling to maintain their connection to their homeland and instill that link in their children who grow up as Americans first, and of the immigrant community second.
I highly recommend this book - and would advocate its use in explaining to high school students the importance of America as a "salad bowl" where groups maintain their individual identity yet become part of the cohesive whole, and not a "mixing pot" where the individual ingredients lose their identity.
A new look at the immigrant experience 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 conversation with "The Namesake" (her first novel which was a follow up to her short story collection "Interpreter of Maladies" which won the Pulitzer): the epic story of the Ganguli family's arrival and assimilation into the world of the United States.
The story begins when Ashoke and his wife (of an arranged marriage), Ashima, come to Massachusetts where Ashoke is a graduate student at MIT. The year is 1968. At the beginning of the novel Ashima is pregnant with her first child, a son.
In Bengali culture, it is common for people to have a formal name and a pet name (nickname). Ashoke has no problem coming up with a nickname for their son: Gogol. Unfortunately, due to a variety of mishaps and misunderstandings, the formal name proves harder to settle on and even harder to enforce. So Gogol Ganguli grows up with only a pet name--one that is not American, or Indian, or a first name.
No one really cares that Gogol's name is so unique, except Gogol whose anxiety over his name is bothersome enough that no external taunts are necessary. Gogol eventually resolves to rename himself, but not after learning the life-changing story that inspired his father give Gogol his name in the first place.
Despite the vast period Lahiri writes about, the novel's focus remains narrowly focused on the characters, especially Ashima and her son. Despite the authenticity that Lahiri brings to her main characters, certain scenes remain naggingly artificial--feeling simultaneously improbable and contrived.
Lahiri's writing here (I've yet to read her short stories) is beautiful without being pretentious or overly self-aware. The story feels authentic and compelling despite the fact that so many of the cultural references remain worlds away.
Even more interesting is the fact that I enjoyed almost the entire novel despite having a strong dislike of Gogol and several of the secondary characters. (I'd say more about what this means in terms of the writing style/skill but I still haven't figured out how that happened.) Despite my misgivings throughout the novel, Gogol does work toward redeeming himself by the end of the story.
Regardless of my nitpicks, "The Namesake" remains a must for anyone interested in the immigrant experience in America. Lahiri's narrative hearkens back to Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" which has a similar scope, tracing three generation's relationship with Detroit.
"The Namesake" deals with common themes but, as any good book should, Lahiri makes these subjects new and original with her unique characters and wonderful writing.
A Gem Beautifully and gently written, this book holds and builds your interest as you read on. It is a study, on one level, of people from India in the USA; on another level, it is a wonderful study of the life history of families everywhere. Highly recommended (and I am completely baffled by the low-star review here). The movie is also excellent, but I think you must read the book first, because the movie cannot capture all the nuances of the fine writing in the book. Her volume of short stories, which I read after this, is also a joy, and I eagerly await her next book.
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