In the package a got last week was a book that I'd been keen on reading for a while. I had ordered it at a present for a person who turned out to already have the book. She now sent me her original copy (since it's not kind to give gifts back), and I started reading it almost immediately. The book, "The Namesake" by Jhumpra Lahiri, tells the story of the son of Bengali immigrants to the US who is trying to find his way and identity within the cultural mess that is his life.
The idea behind the story promises heated father-son discussions, falling out and reconciliation, cross-cultural misunderstandings, and insightful meanderings. My expectations high, I was initially bitterly disappointed. The novel flows smoothly, pleasant to read but uninspired, straightforward like the biography of the man who did nothing, and just as exciting. Drama, plot twists, stunning moments, even narratory detail are painfully missing.
Many years ago, I had read excerpts of The Namesake in a New Yorker debut fiction issue and was fascinated. Now, halfway through the book I dismissed it as a misguided attempt to turn a short story into a novel for the greater selling potential. I'm glad I continued reading, because everything changes with the death of the main character's father, to which a full 10% of the book is devoted.
After this unfortunate event, apparently more important than the emigration itself, the plot thickens, emotions run high and low, misery makes way for happiness, and good things turn bad. A mood of hopeful sadness permeates the pages like thinly concealed longing for a present that could have been. At the end, not much is as one would have predicted at the beginning, and the reader puts the book down only to stay with it in thoughts. Unfinished strands of narrative need untangling, conclusions must be imagined, possible endings dreamed up.
A satisfying read, after all (and now also a movie).
3 comments:
I am sending this link to a friend who loved this book and will appreciate your review.
very thoughtful.
I am planning to see the movie. I'd better hurry before it leaves the theaters. I did read the book but I barely remember what happened.
I'd like to hear about the movie. I don't think it's (going to come) out in France.
Hi Im the friend GC was talking of. I really enjoy Lahiri's writing, she is quite and observer from what Ive come to know. Not just an observer as in the lady wore a red hat, we know that the lady wore a red hat and what tha hat signfies, and what happened when she was 5.
I still have yet to see the movie, as Ive heard the book is better, but I will only know for myself if I see it myself. Thanks for writing about The Namesake.
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