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A review by shubhodiya
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
4.0
Sense of belonging is transient, and yet somehow originates from the same source. All our lives, it seems, we keep searching for something, that one goal, that one dream, that one place, that we have attached to ourselves in hopes of being attaining that feeling, either subconsciously, or in late acknowledgement. Gogol's life probably follows a similar pattern.
The story begins with Ashima in the kitchen in her and her husband Ashoke's residence in Cambridge. She is making a spicy concoction that is a common delicacy in the streets of Kolkata. In America, it seems to be her only source of comfort food during pregnancy, and it is while she is making this in her kitchen that she doubles over in pain and is rushed to the hospital. In the bed, waiting for her water to break, she recalls all the events that have led to her being in America with her husband who is in the Electrical Engineering Department of MIT. From the very first time she saw him, and even before that. His house in Alipore, hers in Amherst Lane. Their arranged marriage, and how she saw America.
Their son Gogol brings joys to their lives in a foreign paradise. His namesake is a Russian author, but means more than that to Ashoke, and he hopes that his son one day would understand his insistence reading his works. But for Gogol, the name tags along a bunch of insecurities and identity crises. He grows up wishing he had a different name and was born into a normal, American family. Even when the family visit their hometown in India, overseas, he doesn't recall feeling this restless sense of belonging the way his parents do.
When he grows up, Gogol studies architecture in Yale University. His initial dating life isn't much to the liking of his parents as the women he dates aren't remotely Bengali. Eventually, post his break up, his mother matches him with one of their family friend's daughter, Moushumi. They do hit off instantly-both of them equally at home and not in the land they have grown up in.
But their marriage doesn't work out. Their similarities become miniscule compared to the differences in their initially blissful married life. Moushumi gives in to the temptations of her first love.
The novel comes to close with Gogol in the oldest residence the Ganguli family, with a copy of Nikolai's Gogol's book, thinking of how without people left in the world to call him Gogol, he will one day cease to exist as well. But the thought brings him neither a sense of victory, nor solace.
The story begins with Ashima in the kitchen in her and her husband Ashoke's residence in Cambridge. She is making a spicy concoction that is a common delicacy in the streets of Kolkata. In America, it seems to be her only source of comfort food during pregnancy, and it is while she is making this in her kitchen that she doubles over in pain and is rushed to the hospital. In the bed, waiting for her water to break, she recalls all the events that have led to her being in America with her husband who is in the Electrical Engineering Department of MIT. From the very first time she saw him, and even before that. His house in Alipore, hers in Amherst Lane. Their arranged marriage, and how she saw America.
Their son Gogol brings joys to their lives in a foreign paradise. His namesake is a Russian author, but means more than that to Ashoke, and he hopes that his son one day would understand his insistence reading his works. But for Gogol, the name tags along a bunch of insecurities and identity crises. He grows up wishing he had a different name and was born into a normal, American family. Even when the family visit their hometown in India, overseas, he doesn't recall feeling this restless sense of belonging the way his parents do.
When he grows up, Gogol studies architecture in Yale University. His initial dating life isn't much to the liking of his parents as the women he dates aren't remotely Bengali. Eventually, post his break up, his mother matches him with one of their family friend's daughter, Moushumi. They do hit off instantly-both of them equally at home and not in the land they have grown up in.
But their marriage doesn't work out. Their similarities become miniscule compared to the differences in their initially blissful married life. Moushumi gives in to the temptations of her first love.
The novel comes to close with Gogol in the oldest residence the Ganguli family, with a copy of Nikolai's Gogol's book, thinking of how without people left in the world to call him Gogol, he will one day cease to exist as well. But the thought brings him neither a sense of victory, nor solace.