The Namesake
1 journaler for this copy...
I bought this trade-size paperback today at a used bookstore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
From what I know from having Indian co-workers for the past twenty years, the cultural setting of this novel is very accurate. In fact, I went to see the movie on the advice of one of them. While I enjoyed how Lahiri writes her characters in great emotional detail, and with a lot of attention to their relationships, the major characters seem to me to just drift from one episode of their life to the next. From what I've heard, many Indian immigrants seem to feel this is characteristic of their 2nd generation children, due to an interior conflict between the cultures they bridge. While that conflict may be present, it has not translated into such complete passivity in other ethnic groups, such as my own. I felt that the character development was incomplete in that regard.
I could easily relate to Gogol's feelings with regard to his name, having similar experiences with my own. Socially is the US, there is often a strong need to have a conventional (English-language) name, even though a large majority of our population is not of English descent. I really did enjoy the exceptional irony of a Bengali bearing the name of a wacky Russian writer like Nikolai Gogol.
I could easily relate to Gogol's feelings with regard to his name, having similar experiences with my own. Socially is the US, there is often a strong need to have a conventional (English-language) name, even though a large majority of our population is not of English descent. I really did enjoy the exceptional irony of a Bengali bearing the name of a wacky Russian writer like Nikolai Gogol.