The Namesake

By: Jhumpa Lahiri

Narrated by: Sarita Choudhury

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

The Namesake follows the Ganguli family through its journey from Calcutta to Cambridge to the Boston suburbs. Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli arrive in America at the end of the 1960s, shortly after their arranged marriage in Calcutta, in order for Ashoke to finish his engineering degree at MIT. Ashoke is forward-thinking, ready to enter into American culture if not fully at least with an open mind. His young bride is far less malleable. Isolated, desperately missing her large family back in India, she will never be at peace with this new world.

Soon after they arrive in Cambridge, their first child is born, a boy. According to Indian custom, the child will be given two names: an official name, to be bestowed by the great-grandmother, and a pet name to be used only by family. But the letter from India with the child's official name never arrives, and so the baby's parents decide on a pet name to use for the time being. Ashoke chooses a name that has particular significance for him: on a train trip back in India several years earlier, he had been reading a short story collection by one of his most beloved Russian writers, Nikolai Gogol, when the train derailed in the middle of the night, killing almost all the sleeping passengers onboard. Ashoke had stayed awake to read his Gogol, and he believes the book saved his life. His child will be known, then, as Gogol.

Lahiri brings her enormous powers of description to her first novel, infusing scene after scene with profound emotional depth. Condensed and controlled, The Namesake covers three decades and crosses continents, all the while zooming in at very precise moments on telling detail, sensory richness, and fine nuances of character.

©2003 Jhumpa Lahiri (P)2003 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This production is a treat for the sheer combination of Lahiri's striking, often enchanting descriptions and Choudhury's graceful rendering of them." ( Publishers Weekly)
"This poignant treatment of the immigrant experience is a rich, stimulating fusion of authentic emotion, ironic observation, and revealing details." ( Library Journal)
"This is a fine novel from a superb writer." ( The Washington Post)
"An effortless and self-assured bildungsroman that more than delivers on the promise of... Interpreter of Maladies." ( Book Magazine)

Truthful storytelling

A compelling and truthful look at the complicated relationship inside an immigrant and first generation American family. What each member gains or loses when they done this identity and how they chose to navigate over the decades. Very touching.

Yes and no

This is a Great book really well written but definitely not a feel good story

Like Roots for Indian families

Ok, this book doesn't go as far as Roots did, but it's a beautiful read none the less. I LOVED every word!

A great book in a very good performance

Would you listen to The Namesake again? Why?

yes, because the details of this story are charming

What about Sarita Choudhury’s performance did you like?

She gave the characters personality

Any additional comments?

Loved it

a must-read truly lovely!

a deeply heartfelt moving story narrated beautifully. Kelso I was a part of the lives of those in the story.

The story just is not my thing

The writing and performance were engaging enough to carry me to the finish, but I'm not particularly happy about having spent so much time on it. I need a plot, a lesson, or, preferably, both. This is just a story about a family over several decades and their path through life. One can draw lessons from that, of course, but it doesn't feel worth my time to do so. Better to spend time thinking about my own life and the lives of the people close to me.

Wonderful

The story by itself it no more than magical. Lahiri is an wonderful author and her use of imagery, is no more than incredible. The pacing of the story is amazing. The narration helps this work of literature, take a new form of art.

Good book for Academic migrants

I like the book. like the tension between two geberations, where the earlier were the first generation migrant struggling to cope up in new world keeping the values and inclination towards own culrure ahead. Whereas the later generation feeling not much connected or loyal to their origin instead much into metamorphose to the land they grew up.

Wonderful, quiet, moving!

I loved listening to this narrator bring to life the extraordinary life of ordinary people. I felt as if I was peaking through a window into the lives of this Bengali family. Ms. Lahiri is an extremely talented writer.

mild disappointment

I was mildly disappointed by this book. I found that it was less about the Ganguli's acclimatisation to American life and more of a disdain for the author's perceived view of quaint, but silly Bengali customs. I also thought that she had a particular fondness for the more "worldly and sophisticated" New England crowd. I got the distinct impression that she, perhaps due to her upbringing, was embarrassed by the native culture of her parents which was probably imposed on her as a child.