First post on the new domain - woohoo! Thanks to DJ Cayenne for all this computer geek stuff - and some might ask - where does he get the time????
Anyway - I was eager to read the latest book from Jhumpa Lahiri since I loved her first collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, which won the Pulitzer; alas - as it always seems to go - the 2nd is never as good as the first smash hit.
The Namesake is a coming of age story about Gogol, an Indian boy/man, who struggles with being raised by first generation immigrants in suburban America. While the story was certainly an enjoyable read, it fell short in its character development. All of the characters, particularly the protagonist and all his girlfriends, are very shallow. In extreme contrast to a recent book read by many of us, Lahiri goes in the opposite direction of Jonathan Lethem in that she does not do enough to delve into who Gogol is and what makes him tick. I actually preferred his parents as characters but again - Lahiri barely let us get to know the dad even though the whole premise of the book - naming his son after his favorite author, Nikolai Gogol, stemmed from him.
The most puzzling aspect of this book was why Lahiri chose to write from the male viewpoint. I think that she probably could have done a much better job had she picked Sonia (the sister) as the main character. The richer, better developed characters (the mom, Maxine and lastly Gogol’s wife - Moushumi) were all female. I don’t think that all writers must write on their own gender but if you’re struggling - stick to what you know………….
All that being said - it was a lighthearted and enjoyable read and I would recommend it as a good lazy Sunday or vacation book.
February 16th, 2005 at 7:04 pm
I read The namesake about a year ago after hearing Jhumpa Lahiri interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air. It was a very interesting interview, which you can listen to here.
While I agree with much of Nitro’s take on this book, there was a lot to this book that I really liked. The book makes you think a lot about names and how they can define you (listen to the interview for more on that). I also felt kind of dumb reading this book, because I never heard of the Russian author Gogol (THE namesake) before reading this book. However, all through the book people are saying “Gogol, like the Russian author” or “Gogol, after the author of…” like everybody took that Russian lit class that I missed. In fact, as a result of this book, I read my first “big” Russian book, “Anna Karenina”. Why didn’t I read Gogol himself? Who knows?
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:20 am
[...] I finally got around to watching the film version of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated. I enjoyed the movie OK. I thought that Elijah Wood played Jonathan a little too autistic. I loved Ukrainian singer Eugene Hutz as the Ukrainian guide, Alex. He played the character even better than written. Hutz’s band, Gogol Bordello also contributed several songs to the soundtrack, which were perfect. Like Cirque de Soleil on a week-long vodka bender, the Band Gogol Bordello is lively, fun, a little foreign/cosmopolitan, and has the potential for drunken anarchy. The band takes their name (in part) from Russian author Nikolai Gogol (as did the protagonist in Jhumpa Lahari’s Namesake). The video below is for the song GB song “Start Wearing Purple”. I would not be surprised to learn that after the video was over everyone involved spent a day or two in jail. They remind me of The Pogues in that regard. “Start Wearing Purple” played over the final credits of Illuminated, if I remember correctly (and there is no guarantee of that). I love this song. I’m definitely going to grow a mustache like Eugene’s. [...]
March 6th, 2007 at 9:00 am
[...] In other media: I had no idea that Jhumpa Lahari’s The Namesake was being made into a movie until I saw this on Very Short List. VSL handily provides this handy Venn diagram so that you’ll get the gist: [...]