Friday, October 01, 2004

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Julianne's September pick.

posted by Juliann @ 9:50 AM   1 comments

1 Comments:

At 11:23 AM, Blogger Juliann said...

... While we're talking about books and people who feel like they don't fit into society... how 'bout I kick off the "Namesake" review?
Duped once again by an author who's won a Pullitzer (or any other prize) in the past! Maybe we should've read her first short story collection that actually DID win the award. Not that the book was all bad. In fact, I really enjoyed the first half of the book that dealt with the Gangulis' assimilation, or lack thereof, into American culture, especially since so much of it was propelled by their son who wanted to fit in. Contrasting Ashima's inability to understand or accept certain customs--not to mention her longing for Calcutta--with Gogol's longing to live those very customs created an intriguing tension. That tension seemed very familiar, too, one I used to see in the faces of so many of my Asian-American high school students every day. They walk a cultural tight rope strung so tight... I don't envy the pressures and expectations they deal with, and yet Ashoke & Ashima never seemed to necessarily push Gogol per se. They had expectations, certainly, but Gogol was too caught up in resenting his name and the lifestyle/culture he'd been born into to be fully aware of them.

Another positive = there are several darling Indian families in our condo complex, so I must confess I felt like I was getting a window into their lives as I read about the Gangulis' attitudes toward various things (food, fashion, holidays, religion, education, etc.). And I loved the high school class where he learns the history behind Gogol the writer; you could feel his shock and shame. His changing his name seemed inevitable, added to his identity crisis, and defined him in college, but I must confess I was a bit let down by a seeming lack of climax and depth after this point of the book.
I expected his great epiphany to come sooner and harder, a result of not only failed relationships and a dying father but also of something deeper within. And why didn't he think to read the book sooner? I expected him to dust it off and read it after Ashoke finally told him the train story, not years later; somehow I thought the book would be a bigger part of his evolution rather than the end itself. Granted, he was still searching for what he thought everybody else had in every one of his relationships, but I thought the author could've truncated them a bit.

The novel's themes certainly ring true, one being that you can't escape your background, your parents, your family... and you certainly can't make them into what YOU want them to be. Coming from a wacky family with a colorful history (ha ha), I can empathize with Gogol's desire to escape it all sometimes. Avoidance only burns it into you hotter and deeper, however.
Accepting it as part of you and eventually coming to love and appreciate how that craziness has shaped you = the road to happiness (or at least for me).

Okay, I'm starting to get sleepy... and this email is freakin' long (woah, didn't realize i wrote that much--sorry), so I'll stop there.

Happy October, (I'm envious of those of you living in "sweater weather") Julianne

 

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