The Namesake

By: Jhumpa Lahiri

Narrated by: Sarita Choudhury

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.

Beautifully written

I thought this was a great story. if you are looking for a book where something big happens, then this is not the book for you. If you like strong character development, then you will love this story. I felt like a fly on the wall, watching the life of this family unfold.

The Namesake

There's no doubt that this is a well-written and well put together novel. It builds slowly and tells the story of an ordinary man, struggling with the disparate parts of his background and his environment--an essentially American story in that way--an American immigrant story. I liked it and don't fault it for being about an ordinary family. But I can't say I think it's really an excellent novel, except technically. I see an enormous number of novels that show excellent craftsmanship these days, but that I know won't last, and this is one of them.

Enjoyable -- mostly.

This is another of those stories that start with color and intensity in a foreign culture at a crossroad of historical events, only to end aimlessly in the contemporary USA with its life blood drained away. I would have rated it much higher if the story line had never moved so far away from its core.

one of the best books I've ever read or heard.

cannot recommend this book enough. as someone who was born in Russia and grew up in the states, this hits close to home. Lahiri's writing is specific and powerful but in a way that doesn't overshadow the story. I never found myself thinking, wow this is good writing, but from the start I found I couldn't stop listening, found myself thinking about the story.

The Culture Struggle

I loved this book because it nailed what it is like to live in two cultures and trying to be loyal to both. Sarita Choudhury is a fantastic narrator and makes this book even better. The movie follows this book so closely that I am still not sure that I listened to it before but I'm sure that it was the movie playing in my head while I was listening. Great read for those who are fascinated by the India way of life.

More Sarita please!!!