The Namesake : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Conflict in the soul
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: Novel lost its story
Review: I was disappointed. I enjoyed her intimate glimpses into a character's life in her book of short stories and many images stay with me from that reading of several years ago - a young husband imagining his wife testing the water pressure in apartments as she tells him she is moving out... However, even with more words, she says less about Gogol. It is a distant sketch of his life. Many of the emotional turning points are clumsily foreshadowed. As an architect, I found her poor research of the profession distracting.

Rating:
Summary: A rose by any other name still smells sweet
Review: 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.


Rating:
Summary: Engaging story about family and identity
Review: The Namesake tells the story of a family who starts out in Calcutta and ends up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli - married in an arranged marriage - come to Cambridge for Ashoke's faculty position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He tries his best to adapt to the United States, but Ashima really misses India. Soon, they have a son, and their difficulty in naming him becomes the basis of the novel's title. In India people have a "good" name - a formal name - and a pet name used by close family and friends. The Gangulis write to family in India to ask the grandmother to determine their baby's good name. Unfortunately, the American hospital where their son is born demands a name immediately, and they have to use their son's pet name, Gogol - named after Ashoke's favorite Russian writer - as his given name.

The story initially focuses on Ashoke & Ashima's struggle to adapt to the US, but then quickly changes to look at Gogol and his experience as a second-generation Indian-American. Gogol's naming experience seems to serve as a metaphor for his life, as he is never entirely clear of his identity or how he fits into the world. The Namesake continues into his high school years, college and life as an adult living on his own.

I initially picked up The Namesake because I had so much enjoyed Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri's other work (although Interpreter of Maladies is a collection of short stories rather than a novel). I did enjoy The Namesake, but it didn't have quite the oomph and emotional power of Interpreter of Maladies. That said, I found it worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Poor Service
Review: The vendor did not send me this book in a timely manner! I purchased it on 12/28/04 and did not receive it until 1/27/05. Serria at PO Box 2613 Ft. Riley KS 99442 should stick to military matters and leave book selling to those who do it better! I ended up buying the book at a bricks and mortar store, enjoyed it thoroughly no thanks to this vendor, was prepared for my book group 1/222/05 only to have the book finally arrived. These folks should be discontinued from Amazon.com marketplace.

Rating:
Summary: ordinary people
Review: This is a novel about a very ordinary young man who, dispite his Indian heritage, lives a very ordinary life. His range of emotions runs from mildly horny to mildly bored. There is so little affect, in his life or in the book, that I would guess both are borderline depressed. Maybe the author's intent is to show how boring life in America is, compared to the crowded, occasionally dangerous life in India. If so, she misses her target. Certainly my life has been more interesting than Gogols.

Rating:
Summary: Identity
Review: This was a great book. Being and Indian w/ an American name, I can totally relate to the male protaganist in this book. His insecurities and emotions are displayed so well. In addition, it's a great interpretation of an Indian American growing up in the US. A fantastic book.

Rating:
Summary: Exotic and Wonderful
Review: 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 by Richard Perez.


Rating:
Summary: Lost its focus
Review: While I appreciated the use of langauage and the author's skill in crafting the novel, it lost its focus. It was also rather self-conscious and a glimpse into a very, very narrow slice of the immigrant experience. As a result the story lacked the hallmark of a great novel: universality.

Nikhil a.k.a. Gogol, remained a bare bones character and the reader comes away with the impression that nomeclature is destiny-and that's all. The author has apparantly used this novel as a thinly veiled catalogue of mildly interesting autobiographical experience but the book lacks imagination, drive, vision. It is time for the author-clearly an adept writer-to take plunge into the unknown. I have a feeling that the results will be wonderful but this book does not get her there.