Thomas's Reviews > The Namesake

Beautiful debut novel about an Indian family moving to the United States and the trials and tribulations of letting go and holding onto certain parts of your culture, as well as the many forces that connect us and break us apart from one another. I found Jhumpa Lahiri’s prose exceptional, how she writes in an ordinary slice-of-life way while rendering such compelling characters with nuanced hopes and struggles. Whether writing about the specific cultural themes of resisting your immigrant parents’ culture in a new country or broader themes of falling in love and breaking up, Lahiri knows how to get a reader immersed and invested in the story’s narrative. There were a few passages throughout the novel where the characterization, especially of our protagonist’s parents, Ashoke and Ashima, as well as the dialogue between these characters, literally took my breath away – passages that reflected back to me how moments out of our control can shape our destinies irrevocably, how we can still create meaning in our lives even when separated from what makes us feel most known and cared for.

There were a couple of elements of the book that I wanted a deeper dive into. These aspects mostly focused on how Gogol, our protagonist, and a character we meet later on, Moushumi, feel driven away from their parents’ Bengali culture, perhaps more so Moushumi than Gogol later on in the novel. For some reason I found Lahiri’s description of this aspect of these characters rather simplistic. Especially for Moushumi, I wanted a more thorough and robust understanding and unpacking of what factors motivated her decisions that then affected Gogol later on in The Namesake. At the same time, as I write this I recognize my feelings about Moushumi may stem from how she reminded me of a man who once hurt me.

Overall recommended for those who enjoy contemporary fiction. Some stuff in my life happened within the past 36 hours that’s gotten me feeling pretty down so I’ve basically only had the energy to read. I appreciate this book and these characters for keeping me company at this low point.