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Loading... The Namesakeby Jhumpa Lahiri
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I didn't finish it. I took it back to the library.  schultzstm | Dec 23, 2009 |  I enjoyed this less than Interpreter of Maladies, but as a novel it was well-crafted, carefully balanced, and edifying. Lahiri's mastery of her characters and narrative is clearly evolving. A good read. (  ) milkyfangs | Dec 22, 2009 | I love Jhumpa Lahiri's writing . I have re read her Interpreter Of Maladies numerous times. I even re read the short stories of her's published in newspapers. I am saying all this because , even though I love her writing style, The Namesake didn't work for me.I am not saying it was bad . It definitely wasn't but it wasn't as good as I had expected her next book to be. This whole theme of trying to find your identity amongst the people who treat you like a foreigner even though you were born and brought there is approached with great sensitivity but it never becomes anything more than that. Gogol's identity crisis , his frustrations regarding his parents Indian values even after spending half their life time in US was really believable. Lahiri's narrative was very appealing , characters very well developed but I wish story had something more to it . A certain zing was missing which I thought was found in abundance in her short story collection . Recommended to fans of contemporary fiction. I haven't seen the movie version (not a fan of book to movie adaptations ) but might give it a try some time soon. (  ) shwetasbookjournal | Dec 18, 2009 | The Namesake is the story of globalization and colonialism coming together in the Ganguli family, especially the relationship between the elder Ashoke and the younger Gogol. Through several intertwining plot lines, told through a few different perspectives, Lahiri shows how culture takes it toll and presents its boon, especially on immigrant families. The writing is skilled, and there are moments of beauty in this novel, though the ending could have been a bit better. (  ) Kunzelman | Dec 8, 2009 | When thinking about how to describe The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, the word that keeps coming to mind is “quiet”. Lahiri slowly weaves a beautiful tapestry of the love and living and feelings of being an immigrant family. The different customs and how the culture of the land in which you live can so overtake you and change you in ways you can’t even realize. First and foremost, it is a love story: The love of a man and wife, the love of parents for their children, the love for one’s family, and the love of one’s homeland. It’s also a story of the journey we all must take of self-acceptance, and, after that, the acceptance of others. Of course, the “Indian-ness” of it is also beautiful and intriguing. One of the things I find fascinating from this book is the realization that all people everywhere share the burden of growing up, of culture, and of the hopes and expectations of their parents. For the majority of us, we caring these burdens among our own people… fellow humans who share similar experiences in this and this helps us not feel so alone. However, for those who have left their native lands, there can be a constant ache and isolation as they endure the struggles of life without the ability to lean on someone who can understand how they feel. What’s more, the first generation born in another land are even more isolated, having one foot in the old and new country, they can neither relate to their parents who have no understanding of the way things are in their adopted homeland, nor can they fully relate to their peers who either don’t have any concept of their home life or they find it a curiosity. Click for full review: http://thekoolaidmom.wordpress.com/20... (  ) thekoolaidmom | Nov 24, 2009 | 
 Jhumpa Lahiri's quietly dazzling new novel, ''The Namesake,'' is that rare thing: an intimate, closely observed family portrait that effortlessly and discreetly unfolds to disclose a capacious social vision.
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0618485228, Paperback)Any talk of The Namesake--Jhumpa Lahiri's follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning debut, Interpreter of Maladies--must begin with a name: Gogol Ganguli. Born to an Indian academic and his wife, Gogol is afflicted from birth with a name that is neither Indian nor American nor even really a first name at all. He is given the name by his father who, before he came to America to study at MIT, was almost killed in a train wreck in India. Rescuers caught sight of the volume of Nikolai Gogol's short stories that he held, and hauled him from the train. Ashoke gives his American-born son the name as a kind of placeholder, and the awkward thing sticks.Awkwardness is Gogol's birthright. He grows up a bright American boy, goes to Yale, has pretty girlfriends, becomes a successful architect, but like many second-generation immigrants, he can never quite find his place in the world. There's a lovely section where he dates a wealthy, cultured young Manhattan woman who lives with her charming parents. They fold Gogol into their easy, elegant life, but even here he can find no peace and he breaks off the relationship. His mother finally sets him up on a blind date with the daughter of a Bengali friend, and Gogol thinks he has found his match. Moushumi, like Gogol, is at odds with the Indian-American world she inhabits. She has found, however, a circuitous escape: "At Brown, her rebellion had been academic ... she'd pursued a double major in French. Immersing herself in a third language, a third culture, had been her refuge--she approached French, unlike things American or Indian, without guilt, or misgiving, or expectation of any kind." Lahiri documents these quiet rebellions and random longings with great sensitivity. There's no cleverness or showing-off in The Namesake, just beautifully confident storytelling. Gogol's story is neither comedy nor tragedy; it's simply that ordinary, hard-to-get-down-on-paper commodity: real life. --Claire Dederer (retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:31:44 -0500) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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