The Namesake: A Novel
by Jhumpa Lahiri

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Book Reviews of The Namesake: A Novel

Book Review: Would a Rose by Another Other Name Smell as Sweet?
Summary: 5 Stars

Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli have a traditional family background in Calcutta. After they marry (an arranged marriage), they move to Cambridge, Massachusetts where Ashoke pursues his education. Their lives are made more difficult by the separation from their families and homeland, and they cope by drawing their Bengali friends in the U.S. close to them. Through an implausible series of events, they have no name prepared when their son is born. Forced to put down something, they choose "Gogol" to be his name. To their son, that name is a curse that he bears which puts distance between him and his family. The story carries on until he is in his late 30s.

Ms. Lahiri is a very stylish writer and she tells her story well. Ashima Ganguli is her finest creation in the book, and you will relate deeply to this woman. A major disappointment about the book is that it moves off of Ashima too much after the beginning. Gogol isn't nearly as interesting or attractive a character. In fact, I didn't relate well to him at all. The sections about his life by the end seem like just so much filler for the book's interesting conclusion. As a result, the book comes off like a fine short story or novella that has a lot of excess material stuffed into the middle and end.

Many of my favorite parts of the book were the many references to Bengali customs. Seldom does a book about immigrants describe their cultural practices in such loving and thoughtful ways.

Without Ashima, the ending, the fine writing style and the cultural descriptions, this would be just another debut novel. If those elements had been put into a stronger story with more characters of Ashima's development and appeal, this could have been an excellent novel. As it is, the book starts off at a high level and drifts off from there.

I suggest you give the book a try.

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