The Namesake

THE NAMESAKE: Jhumpa Lahiri: Houghton Mifflin: 2003: 291 pages.

In the 1960s Ashoke and Ashimi Ganguli immigrate from India to America for Ashoke to go to school at MIT. Ashima soon gives birth to their first son. The Ganguli’s end up putting their son’s pet-name on his birth certificate because the grandmother’s name for the baby never arrives from Calcutta. He is named Gogol after the Russian author because one of his books literally saved Ashoke’s life in a train wreck.

Gogol grows up an American boy who hates his name which is neither Indian nor American. He tends to blame his discomfort with his world on his name. Before entering college, Gogol legally changes his name to Nikhil, the good-name his parents finally decided on but never actually used.

This novel follows the Ganguli family through their assimilation into Western culture and how difficult it can be for children born into different customs to understand their parents’ transplanted traditions and for parents to comprehend why their children don’t see the world the same way they do. The story was a little disjointed at times, but I really felt like I was seeing the world through an immigrant’s eyes.

AJ