The Namesake by Jhmpa Lahiri

[bony00]

I read this book last week. It was a NY Times Bestseller. This is the author's 2nd book. The first was Interpreter of Maladies, a book of short stories. The Namesake is about a male indian student at MIT who went back to India to get married via an arranged married. He brought his new wife to the US. They live in a tiny apartment. The wife is terribly homesick and misses her extended family terribly. They have a son and at the birth, they still haven't received the letter from the wife's grandmother with the name for the child, as is Bengali traditon. So they are unable to leave the hospital without a name and so they give him a "home name". The story continues with the growth of the family, the move of the family to the suburbs, the acculturation process. The children are not appreciative of their Bengali heritage and so there is a conflict of cultures. The son does not like his name. There is a lot of conflict with his name and when he turns 18, he legally changes his name. The children grow up and are very successful. After dating non-indians, the son eventually marries a Bengali girl, to his mother's delight. The daughter marries and American. The children struggle with their Bengali heritage and American culture, which is their own. After all they are American. In the end though, they seem to find a way to embrace both. It was a good read. I recommend it.

I enjoyed this book too, but not as much as Interpreter of Maladies. I had trouble getting used to the style of The Namesake. I kept expecting to get more dialogue or more depth into the different episodes of their lives. Once I got used to that, I liked it a lot better. The story of the family is very moving and a lot of Gogol's issues of identity are relevant to any multi-cultural family. I was sad to put the book down in the end.

[Cumberland]

I agree with Esther. Interpreter of Maladies was a great book, so I expected the same of the namesake too. I guess I was looking for more of a plot, more of a point and I didnt feel like it ever got there. I didnt dislike it, I just didnt think it was as great as the reviews said.

Thanks for the review! I have been meaning to read this book since it came out, now I can add it to my must read list! I love the story line and am looking forward to it

[SueC]

I just finished this book and I really enjoyed it! I haven't read her first book (but if it is better than this one I will definitely go get it), so perhaps not having any expectations of the author caused me to enjoy the book more. I am so fascinated by the Indian culture that the glimpse into a modern Indian family living in the United States really interested me. I liked that the author went back and forth between the mother and the son's perspectives, as their views on America and India were so different. I couldn't help but compare my husband's family to the Indian family, as my in-laws still long for their family in the Philippines, still speak Tagolog to each other, and mainly cook Filipino food, etc. My husband and his brother were pretty much raised here, and haven't really embraced their heritage as much. The way the parents in the novel create their own "families" with other Bengali families in the US is exactly what my in-laws have done.

[SueC]

I just finished Interpretor of Maladies and I agree, it is a better book than Namesake. It is a collection of short stories all featuring an Indian character either in America or in India. I was very impressed with the author's ability to interest the reader in just a few paragraphs--after each short story I felt like I had read practically an entire small novel.