MADreads

Two names are better than one

June 9th, 2007 Molly - Central

Ever discover that a book on your “to read” list is being made into a major motion picture?  After the initial excitement or disappointment, do you bump that title up on the list, to get it read before you see the movie?  I know that I do.  I saw a trailer for The Namesake based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri when I was in a pre-Oscar movie going blitz and remembered that I still hadn’t read the book, even though it had been on my list for YEARS.  I’m so glad I finally got to read it.  And now the movie is playing at Westgate.

A Bengali family saga that focuses primarily on the relationship between immigrant parents and their son born in America, The Namesake explores how values differ from generation to generation.

The novel begins in Cambridge in 1968 with the birth of baby Gogol and how his presence changes the lives of his parents, Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli.  Ashoke is a graduate student at MIT and happy to be living in the U.S., while Ashima spends her days full of the necessities of baby rearing and getting to know the other Cambridge Bengalis.  Then Ashoke takes a job as a professor at a suburban college and the family moves into a subdivision and has another baby. 

The parents assimilate to a degree, while maintaining their culture, but from the first day of kindergarten on, Gogol struggles to find his place.  His parents insist that he use his real name, his good name, “Nikhil”, much to young Gogol’s confusion.  Five-year-old Gogol doesn’t understand the difference between pet names and good names, and neither does his teacher, so he is referred to as Gogol from the moment his parents leave the school. 

Soon, the family is celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, and the kids are eating hot dogs and peanut butter and jelly.  The parents still try to embrace their heritage, going to sitar concerts and sending Gogol to Bengali language and culture lessons, but both Gogol and his sister are very American, and somewhat resentful of having to give up things that seem more important in order to attend Indian cultural events and classes or travel for months at a time back to Calcutta.

The years go by and Gogol’s life drifts further and further away from his parents.  He compartmentalizes his Indian self from his Yale and Columbia educated architect self and is embarrassed by his parents and their way of life.  Eventually, he comes to embrace who he is, where he came from and what his names represent.

The everyday details make this book so comfortable to read.  The food and fabrics and surroundings are written so exact that I found myself craving foods that I’ve never eaten and examining my own family traditions that have fallen by the wayside or been altered over the years.  I hope the movie captures these details in the same way.  I will comment here after I’ve seen the movie; I hope others comment comparing book to movie as well.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction