The Namesake is a full length novel written by Jhumpa Lahiri. Her collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and has been much loved by many. The Namesake is a beautiful book that has sense become a movie. I haven’t seen the movie, but I love the book.
This is the story of Ashoke and Ashima. Ashoke and Ashima have an arranged marriage and move to live in America where Ashoke is a student. Ashima lives a fairly isolated life compared to that she would have had in India. Yet she is a good and faithful wife and has two children. The first child they have ends up with the name Gogol, for several reasons. The name Gogol has great significance to Ashoke and he has a difficult time conveying to Gogol the importance of his name. Gogol is ashamed of it and goes by his other name, Nikhil, which fit into his American life a little better.
Nikhil has tension with his parents throughout the book as his Bengali and American identities pull him in different directions. Nikhil is very involved with an American girl when his father dies and he starts to re-examine his life a little bit more. He becomes more involved with family again and becomes more understanding of his father now that he is no longer present.
This is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I only hope that Jhumpa Lahiri continues to write and will write more novels.
08/08/2010 at 9:13 am Permalink
I absolutely LOVED this novel. Such a beautiful story. You should try Lahiri’s short story collections, too – Interpreter of Maladies and Unaccustomed Earth – both are absolutely fantastic.