The Namesake : a Book Review

Jhumpa Lahiri writes about Bengali immigrants and their American offspring. It is a recurring theme in all her books and short stories. The children become adults, and gradually get assimilated into the American society, but somehow the older generation gets left behind. The younger people can not relate to them and there is a communication gap.

This is a story about Gogol Ganguli, the "American Born Confused Desi", (Desi means Native in Indian vernacular), and his coming of age. Ashok Ganguli and his wife Ashima are Bengalis from Calcutta.

They are first generation immigrants living in New England. They have a son who is named Gogol after a Russian writer. The reasons are complex. Ashok had been reading a book by Nikolai Gogol on a train when it derailed, killing everyone sleeping around him. He survives, goes on to marry and have a son and a long and comfortable life. He credits the Russian author with saving his life, and names his son after the author. The son hates his name, as he complains, 'that it is neither Indian nor American but of all things Russian.'' Plus - and the issue dogs him for years - he cannot imagine saying, 'Hi, it's Gogol' under potentially romantic circumstances.''

The Gangulis are simple and well meaning people but do not belong. I feel Lahiri writes from personal experience, having lived in the community of expatriate Bengalis in America, and having experienced their lonely lives. They are educated, untouched by poverty or deep-seated bigotry, yet lonely and dislocated. They do not belong; their social life is made up entirely of fellow expatriates. Their American children struggle with their own issues of identity and belonging.

To me this alienation between parents and children came through in the stark scene when Ashok gifts Gogol the very book he was reading when his train was derailed on his graduation. Gogol asks "Do I remind you of the horror of that accident?" and his father explains "No, to me you are the life after the accident" It has a profound impact on the boy, who until then hated his name. He also begins to understand his father and it marks a change in their relationship. This lack of belonging also comes through in the portrayal of Ashima, Gogol's mother, who lives in America till the time her husband is alive but returns to India after his death.There is nothing to keep her in America, as her children have moved away.

All through his childhood and youth, Gogol is alienated from his parents and their way of life. He grows up in New England
in the seventies and eighties, moves out, and struggles to find himself through successive ill-fated relationships, including a failed marriage. His inner thoughts are the vehicle through which the author explores the other characters, including his parents and sister. He finally begins to understand himself, that he is entirely Indian and at the same time, entirely American. The narration is crisp and vivid, the characterization masterful.

Not once did I feel that this was a debut novel. Jhumpa Lahiri is a masterful story teller who has excellent command over her language and the subject she writes about. She has retained the crispness of a short story in this book. I have read the book many times and even seen the movie. It is a beautiful portrayal of second generation Americans, very sensitive and heart-warming