The Namesake –Jhumpa Lahiri
The Namesake is Jhumpa Lahiri’s first novel, which was first published in September 2003 by Houghton Mifflin. Jhumpa Lahiri is Pulitzer-prize winning author for her first book, The Interpreter of Maladies, which was published in 1999. The Namesake has been translated into many other languages, including Bengali and has been adapted into a movie by Mira Nair in September 2006, which stars the late Irrfan Khan and Tabu.
It starts in post-Independence, the 1960s, Calcutta, in the house of a common middle-class family, with high dreams. Aashima, the daughter of the household, is a young girl and about to be married off. Her parents are in the process of finding her a groom, even though she is still in college at that time. This was not just common practice then but still continues now. One day she comes home and her mother has arranged her to meet a suitor for her. Aashima doesn’t complain. In moments like these, Lahiri tells us the social situation of those times. The suitor is another Bengali guy called Ashoke Ganguly, one who is studying in the US. The real journey starts from here, but the actual hero of the story is different. Aashima is married to Ashoke, and they move to the States. The couple then has a son, Gogol, and a daughter, Sonia.
The actual hero of the story is this couple’s son, who in a frenzy is named Gogol, after his father’s favourite Russian author, Nikolai Gogol. He, as the name of the book does suggest, is the namesake. The rest of the book revolves around the family’s story in a totally foreign country. The author traces the life of this child, trying to find an identity for himself in a world which doesn’t quite accept him. Like a quintessential second-generation migrant, Gogol tries to discover the two stark different worlds around him, which, unfortunately, his parents are trying to do at the same time too. This is a very confusing situation, which is not at all helped by the choice of name that his parents have given him. Other than the normal teasing and namecalling, Lahiri projects Gogol’s life through the names that he has. The peculiar and arguably even depressing life of an immigrant couple in the early 1970s and 1980s is also displayed in the story. Though some of you may be familiar with immigrant couples, the story here is different. Like today, there are no mobile phones in the story, and the only contact with the relatives back in is by telephone on infrequent occasions and by the scarce letters. The Gangulis do have Bengali friends who live in and around them, and unfortunately, they are their only friends. This transition is especially very difficult for Aashima. Growing up in hot, humid and sunny Calcutta is very very different compared to the dreary, cold and almost always dark environment of Boston. Though the novel’s main focus is on the Namesake, Lahiri gives equal attention to such elements, which are extremely influential in the lives of such families. Herself being the child of such migrant parents, the story that she narrates always feels natural, as if she was recounting her own experiences.
The story advances slowly as Gogol grows up. He enters high school, then college and so forth. In every major step of his life, Gogol has to rename himself, sometimes officially and sometimes just for himself. His names are often linked to who he is in that place or that moment of time. His different names form two different worlds for himself. This contrast between himself and himself is shown to somehow dissuade his pursuit of a search for his own identity. One that he himself has to give to himself, not anyone else. To be frank this is the main question or plotline of the book.
Lahiri’s style of writing this book quite strongly suggests that it is heavily based on experience. Her descriptions of New York and Boston and even Calcutta instantly makes you imagine what it must’ve felt like being there. They are not very long and extensive for no reason, and hence suggest that(once again) she is writing from her own experiences. What made me realize it quite profoundly is her description of the family’s trip to India. Herself having moved to the US at the age of three, she must have experienced it too. Gogol and Sonia for all purposes look like the children of the land that they are in but feel extremely alienated. This particular situation does not require outstanding rhetoric but has to be felt and experienced first hand. That is the greatest strength of this novel.
Even though I am not well-versed in her ways of expression, I can definitely say that she is an excellent author. She does not use difficult words or complex sentences but writes just brilliantly. Nowhere in the book do you feel like skipping a few paragraphs because it is stretching on for too long. The book, though very good, cannot quite be classified as a page-turner. Do not take me the wrong way, it is very interesting, but it does not contain a lot many cliffhangers or surprises (note my words, not many) nor does it have unsolvable mysteries and terrifying adventures. One thing you could say though is that it is a real un-put-downer. Believe me, there is a difference. The Namesake, as I have said before, feels like a journey. The journey of life, and also of self-discovery. Though the story of the main character in here is a little more exciting and happening than what ours might be, it gives us a feeling that we need to do what Gogol does through the book too: discover ourselves, make our own identity. Read to this one to get lost in this journey, one which is quite excellently written by an equally excellent writer.
-Review Authored by Miheer Karandikar
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