Book review- "The Namesake"

"The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

With the advent of globalisation, culture is also being globalised because of the flood of people’s migrations to the other countries. With this cross-cultural flow, the English fiction  writings is also brimming with themes of new-world identity, problem of assimilation, nostalgia for homeland, hybrid generation etc. which gave the term “diaspora’ an  eloquent voice in English literature. Jhumapa Lahiri also has left a remarkable mark in this voyage, who is an immigrant herself living in America.

The plot of this novel takes off from the flight of a Bangali couple across the ocean from Calcutta to United Stated. Ashoke Ganguli and his wife Ashima beget their first son in America and wait for a letter to come from India for an Indian name to be decided on, but in urgency they name him Gogol, borrowed from Nikolai Gogol, a Russian novel writer. Gogol abhors his strange and antic name and feels embarrassed in the company of his American friends and teachers. He tries to detach himself from his burdensome heritage and assimilates into the the ways of American life. He develops an affair with an American girl Maxine but breaks up after a fight. He realizes his mistakes, returns to Ashima after his father’s death and feels a responsibility towards his family makes an effort into the direction of accepting his parent's background. He marries a Bangali girl Moushmi but divorces her because of her indulgence with somebody else. This clash between his past and present does not let him find any ease in life. Towards concluding the novel, it's suggestive  that Gogol tries to re-conciliate with his conflicting situations, but the novel has an open ending leaving reader guessing the upcoming happenings in his life.
Ashoke and Ashima always find it difficult to assimilate into the new culture of foreign land and their intense craving for their own culture, customs, food, etc. can be sensed throughout the novel. Gogol represents the hybrid generation of immigrants, that considers itself as an American and does not feel any affinity with their parental culture but also can’t get rid of its burden. The theme is universal and can touch the heart of those uprooted from their ground because of any cause and face the cross-culture conflicts. The migrated family has at least some abode to call their home  but their children find no such place as their own.
The plot runs in a crafty manner, a well known style of Lahiri. It is pregnant with emotions and elaborate and ironic description dealing with the themes of "the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflict of assimilation, and, most poignantly the tangled ties between generations".

I have seen the movie  "The namesake" too, based on the same novel directed by Mira nair, acted by Irfan and Tabbu and Kal Penn and found it worth watching.