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  • An good look into the differences between a 1st and 2nd generation Indian family. Overall interesting, but the writing leaves you in an emotional void through chapters

    

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• ― Wendy Celeste said on Jul 8, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • The Namesake

  • A beautifully written multi-generational tale of new beginnings, cultural traditions, fate, and chance.

    

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• ― Readingrat said on Mar 23, 2008 | Add your feedback

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  • The main character became incredibly annoying halfway through the book. Beautifully written though.

    

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• ― tanyaferrell said on Jan 24, 2008 | Add your feedback

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  • This is one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time.

    

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• ― jwright said on Aug 16, 2007 | Add your feedback

Jhumpa Lahiri's debut story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, took the literary world by storm when it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Fans who flocked to her stories will be captivated by her best-selling first novel, now in paperback for the first time. The Namesake is a finely wrought, deeply moving family drama that illuminates this acclaimed author's signature themes: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the tangled ties between generations. The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of an arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ashoke does his best to adapt while his wife pines for home. When their son, Gogol, is born, the task of naming him betrays their hope of respecting old ways in a new world. And we watch as Gogol stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With empathy and penetrating insight, Lahiri explores the expectations bestowed on us by our parents and the means by which we come to define who we are.

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