The Namesake by Lahiri Jhumpa (2004) - Fiction

A story about a man trying to navigate between his American and Indian identity

This is Jhumpa Lahiri’s second novel with 291 pages of subtle yet propulsive writing. It falls under the genre of Multicultural Literature for adult readers. The storytelling relies heavily on character development and description of common life occurrences. To be frank, the plot is quite mundane, moving like a slow drifting wave with only a few jolts of tragedy or joy. This is why I would not suggest it for most young adult readers unless they show special interest in multicultural literature.

However, don’t be put off by a lack of “action.” What carried me so swiftly through this novel is Lahiri’s superb writing. Her style is so emphatic and graceful that Newsweek captures it perfectly: “Jhumpa Lahiri write’s such direct, translucent prose you almost forget that you’re reading.”

The story follows the Ganguli family with wife Ashima and husband Ashoke having recently moved from Calcutta to Massachusetts in 1968. Their children Gogol (later Nikhil) and Sonia are raised with the hope that they will embrace their parent’s Bengali culture. However, the children prefer to celebrate Christmas over “the worship of Durga and Saraswati” and throughout their adolescence they chose almost everything American over Indian (p. 64). Gogol wishes he could attend more weekend art classes instead of Indian culture ones and is bored even at his own birthday parties since he views them just an excuse for his parents to invite every Bengali family within a hundred mile radius. His unawareness of the loneliness his parents feel being so far away from their home is something that takes decades for him to recognize.

The plot fast-forwards to the adult life of Gogol and mostly focuses on his relationships with a few women. Lahiri uses these relationships to show how far Gogol separates himself from his family’s ways. At one point he’s in bliss visiting his girlfriend’s lake-side cabin and elevates her family’s customs over those of his parents. These cultural comparisons were some of the best parts of the book and connect to one of the main cruxes of the book: his mixed feelings of contention and disconnection from his own family. At the cabin we see that “he is conscious of the fact that his immersion in Maxine’s family is a betrayal of his own” (p. 141). His awareness of this fact does little to change his actual choices, however.

The topic of one’s namesake is revisited throughout the novel. Gogol’s name comes from the Russian writer Nikoli Gogol whom his father feels a deep connection with. Nevertheless, Gogol’s feelings about his name is a continuous point of contention since he sees it as neither American or Bengali and in his school-age years his name doesn’t exactly help him fit in. One’s birth name is a common dilemma dealt with in multicultural literature (read Names/Nombres by Sandra Cisernos), but I wasn’t emotionally moved by this aspect of the novel. Yes, names can be a point of contention when people pronounce them incorrectly, or they may remind us of a past we want to forget, but I don’t think Lahiri gives her characters the types of opportunities to have such strong feelings towards their names.

My review is a mix of positive and negative, but Lahiri’s writing does carry this novel very effectively. If you appreciate superb writing, enjoy stories about familial drama, and like character-driven plots, then you’ll likely enjoy The Namesake.

Highest Score - 5 Trophies

Writing: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Readability: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Plot: 🏆🏆

Characters: 🏆🏆🏆🏆

Overall: 🏆🏆🏆🏆