Customer Reviews

Namesake

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I can't remember what movie I must constantly watch that has the trailer for the movie The Namesake, which is based upon Jhumpa Lahiri's book of the same name, but every single time I saw the trailer, I wanted to see the movie. Naturally, I waited a few years, took the book out from the library, waited a few weeks, and now have finally finished the book.

Seems like the natural progression, don't you think?

In the past, I never used to be one of those people who ensured they read the book before watching the movie, but now I make myself. I was quite pleased with Lahiri's novel and couldn't put it down'over 24 hours I had finished the whole thing; naturally, stopping to eat and sleep, and to get a tire fixed (which has nothing to do with anything'it was just an annoyance that took me away from reading this!).

I don't know what it is about books set in different places, or books that showcase a different culture, but I find them to be such an escape. Something so different than what I'm accustomed to in my everyday life. Though, don't be fooled! The Namesake takes place mostly in America, but the smatterings of India throughout the novel as well as the culture the family tries to preserve in America is breathtaking. At just under 300 pages, Lahiri covers so much ground, which I'm impressed with; too many times I pick up a huge novel that is trying to do just the same thing Lahiri is and I find myself getting bored, putting it down, and reading something else in the interim. I'm happy to say I didn't have that problem with this book.

There may be a lot of narrative in this book, it is quite simple (though still beautiful and unpretentious), which makes for a very quick pace and I found I was swept into the story instantly'Lahiri has a great flow in this novel. I wouldn't say there's any main character of the book'the closest is probably Gogol'but, rather, the main 'character' is the Ganguli family. It only seems natural because the Ganguli's immediately gravitate towards more Bengalis in the neighbourhood in which they move, everyone being dubbed an honorary aunt, uncle, or cousin.

Leaving the novel, I was left to think about what's in a name? I think people take their names for granted'or even the naming of a child can be so frivolously done. The Namesake reminds us that the naming of a child is a big thing, that parents should pick a name that the child will be proud of, a name that tells a story, a name that brings them back to their history. It tells us that even though we may be so quick to try and run away from our heritage, after a few trips and life struggles, we might just want to come back to it.

What's in a name? Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli understand the importance of naming. As Bengalis, they rarely use each other's "good names," the formal first name that appears on birth certificates, diplomas, and marriage licenses. Instead, they use the pet name bestowed upon each Bengali shortly after birth, the one that is used exclusively by family and friends (which may be a real name or a silly, onomatopoeic nickname). The good name is too momentous, too significant to be used, or chosen, lightly. So, when Ashoke and Ashima, newly transplanted to the United States, learn that they are expecting a child, they ask the family matriarch to select a name for their baby and send it to them in a letter. Nobody else will know the chosen name until afterward.

Months pass, and the letter fails to appear; it seems it's been lost in the mail. Initially, the Gangulis aren't too worried, because Bengalis often aren't officially named for months or even years; but the American system demands a name immediately. Meanwhile, the great-grandmother has fallen severely ill, and is in no state to reveal baby names. Running out of time, Ashoke names his son "Gogol," after his favorite Russian writer, a name that has immense personal significance to him. But to young Gogol, the name is a burden, a disfigurement, an ugly reminder of the many differences between him and his peers. As he grows up, Gogol embarks on a bitter love-hate relationship with his name; he loathes it, he denies it, he tries to escape it. Only when Gogol has made peace with his ethnic background and his family's traditions can he learn to accept his identity.

Lahiri, known for her critically adored short-story collection The Interpreter of Maladies, makes her debut as a novelist with this work. Her writing is understated and simple, but beautifully evocative and filled with sensory detail. Though much is necessarily omitted in a story that covers several decades in under three hundred pages, Lahiri chooses her words deftly, focusing on quotidian scenes of startling intimacy to make the reader feel close to the characters. Which is not to say her characters are incomplete or undeveloped; though more development would be welcome, the characters still feel well-thought-out and complex, and their relationships with each other are believable and sympathetic.

Focusing on themes of displacement and foreignness, and the bewildering and alienating process of assimilating into a new society, The Namesake is powerful and genuine, blending humor and drama into a realistic portrait of a family. Given their struggle to retain their heritage while becoming fully integrated into their new country, and the resulting confusion of identity that trickles down the generations, what is, perhaps, most surprising in the end is how all-American the Gangulis really are. I truly enjoyed this novel, and I think you will, too. In addition, I'd like to recommend another recent Amazon purchase, 'The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition' by Richard Perez, an unconventional and highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.

I really enjoyed The Namesake, just as much as I enjoyed Interpreter of Maladies. 'The Namesake' is a very entertaining novel that sheds light on the experiences of first generation Americans, whose parents are immigrants. It is one of the very few novels that have dealt with this subject and it certainly came out at its best in doing so.

It has got all the ingredients of conflict in a person's soul, conflict in a family and conflict in a community trying to stick together in another land. In this novel, the conflict in culture between Eastern vs. Western, The Old World vs. The New World, Father vs. Son is brilliant exposed. I could easily relate to the story as someone who is caught in the same situation himself. I was certainly disappointed by certain parts of the story, but on the whole it was marvelous. I was impressed by the positive reaction to it.
The characters are marvelously depicted and made to interact with so much fluidity, tenderness and love. The setting involving India and the USA is genuine. Brilliantly told, Namesake vividly brought out a clash of two cultures and of a boy realizing his father's life. In the end, we come to understand the enormous prize immigrants pay as they abandon their ethnic or national identities in their quests to be accepted in their new countries.

Also recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, FATHERS AND SONS

There are times when we all want to reinvent ourselves. This is the story of a young man born to Indian parents who have moved from their home country to Boston so that his father can work as an engineering professor at Harvard. Gogol is named after the author whose book his father was reading at the time of a horrendous train accident. His parents intended Gogol only as a pet name however circumstance changes his pet name to the name he is given when he enters school. Gogol is happy with it until adolescence when he must make sense of his ancestry and the future he must face. It's foreign territory for those of us having grown up in one culture with plenty of opportunity for relationships with people of similar backgrounds however I found his angst driven life irritating considering the opportunities that were available to him.

It kept me completely engaged from beginning to end, despite a rather simplistic story line- most of the book centred around family ties to names.

The other day I was in the bank when I witnessed what could have been a scene from the book, as two women held an animated conversation for quite some time. They eventually introduced themselves and exchanged numbers- exclaiming their delight in seeing another resident of our small town from India. I felt like a voyeur as I watched the scene unfold.

Lahiri is an extremely skilled writer and I look forward to reading what is to come from her impending lifetime of literary greatness. Put aside the fact that she won the Pulitzer for her debut short story collection, for a first novel, The Namesake is literary greatness. Try reading the first novel of Faulkner or Updike and getting past the first ten pages without throwing the book out of the window. If she keeps writing prolifically (I heard in an interview that it took two years for her to write this book) she may eventually win another Pulitzer and possibly the Nobel Prize in Literature.

There are many things that Lahiri did in this book that really impressed me, but since I'm giving the book four stars, I will focus on four:
1. her treatment of time
2. her usage of physical surroundings
3. the tense and perspective of the narrative
4. the universal and the particular

1. She is a master at shifting time. The book spans the life of Gogol from before his birth to about age thirty. It's very interesting to see how these characters change over the years. It was a relief for me to read a book that wasn't so episode oriented. This book "tells" a lot. Only a brilliant writer can get away with that and still manage to "show" you something. The time shifting is really what impressed me the most; the book has a great sense of movement. Lahiri gives us a moment by moment narrative and then sifts through months of events in a mere paragraph. She moves through years in just sentences.

2. The physical surroundings represent important ideas as well as represent what the characters are going through. Trains are a recurring location where significant things happen (Ashoke's accident; Gogol meets his first girlfriend). Gogol has an apartment in NYC that he's never in, representing his emptiness or whatever. The contrast of his 2nd girlfriend's parent's house to Gogol's parent's house represents a cultural divide. The fact that he gets married in a hotel represents the transience of his connection to his culture and of the marriage itself. And, of course there's the hotel in Ohio, although I won't give that away. This is a review not a synopsis.

3. Regarding the tense and perspective of the narrative. It is third person present tense. The present tense provides an immediacy while Lahiri at the same time manages to give the prose a meaningful voice. It is easy to lose a sense of authority without the past tense but Lahiri has a style that eloquently evades this. Third person perspective, as far as I'm concerned, is the superior form of narrative for a novel. Lahiri successfully brings us into the world of a young man and his parents. The only perspective that is lacking is that of the daughter, Sonia, Gogol's younger sister. But I think that one of the important things about the existence of the character Sonia is how she is a foil for Gogol.

4. The universal and the particular. What these character's all go through in The Namesake is the difficulty of identifying with the new world, the old one, or both. For those of us who don't have an old world to worry about identifying with, Lahiri still offers something about this experience that we can access. Read the book and find out what that is.

I give it four stars because the best is yet to come from this author.

Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel is a treasure. The story of American-Indians challenging traditions of their families but maintaining true to themselves is one that everyone can identify with, regardless of heritage or cultural background. Lahiri's writing is so strong, I'm convinced she could write a cookbook that would be riveting. I look forward to more from this author.

A superbly written piece, simplistic in style yet powerful in imagery. Lahiri has this way of pointing out certain details that accurately relate emotion or instance.

Very easy to read, light hearted and possessing comedy, romance and melancholy. If you've ever felt displaced, a first generation East Indian (or from any other culture really), this book really puts things into perspective. Highly recommended - I've gotta check out her other piece. :)

I loved this book. Partially, because I am of South Asian descent, to me it felt like reading a part of my childhood in flowing, beautiful prose.

I think a lot of the negative reviews that I've seen come from people who are probably not aware of what artists do, which is detail, description, and getting into a craft so deeply that it feels like breathing. I think, also, JL is one of those artists who enjoys asthetics and womanhood -- and also the sensual pleasures of everyday life. I found her description of Moushmi to be so womanly and just tinged with all the things women know to be true about their lives. As far as the climax question, there are many *types of writers, and not all of them are comfortable weaving murder, dramatic affairs, political commentary etc. into their narratives. Of course, will it go down a classic work? Probably not. But is it compelling for what it offers? It moved me, but I can understand how some may not enjoy this book -- or view it as slightly superficial. Which perhaps, sometimes, life is.

But then, I don't think that anything visionary or grandiose is quite the style here, and the people who can see into the writing and story for it offers will find the classic, elegant restraint the Interpreter stories became a hallmark of.

I strongly believe that everything we do is for the purpose of preparing us for something in the future. I don't believe in fate or astrology, but I do think that life is a journey and we don't have the tools for that journey at birth - we earn them. It's like school. First grade prepares you for second, which prepares you for third, and so on.

The Namesake, by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, is about the Ganguli family and the journey of that family as one unit and about some of their individual journeys. Ashoke comes to the United States to make a life for himself and eventually returns to India to marry Ashima and bring her back home with him. The reader is not shown much of Ashoke's transition into American culture, but we see every painful detail of Ashima's. Coming straight from India, she does not have all the tools to cope with life here. Gradually though, her experiences prepare her. Her children make that transition much more smoothly.

Early on in Lahiri's tale, Ashoke is in a train accident. He survives with only a limp, but his car-mates all die. When Ashoke and Ashima have their son, they name him after one of the men who died in the car - Gogol. The naming of something, be it a person or an object, is a powerful moment. Gogol's parents name him because they know that the train accident played a pivotal moment in their life. Gogol takes more than 30 years to understand that lesson. It takes those 30 years before he accrues the life experiences that leave him ready for that information.

Lahiri is a beautiful storyteller and the book is an easy read. She transitions from character to character but the reader never loses touch of the central story of one family - of family in general. There are two lessons Lahiri gives. First, as time moves on, so do peoples' lives. In each moment something new is learned and that lesson can be applied later. No moment is meaningless. Second, family is necessary, though not necessarily in the biological sense. We need family for support, for love and for a foundation. It is family who knew us when and will know when we change, grow, excel, decline. When we don't have family surrounding us, we can make our own up of friends, lovers and neighbors.