The Namesake is a 2003 novel by American author Jhumpa Lahiri, published by Houghton Mifflin. It was her debut novel that received positive critical appraisal. It was initially published in ‘The New Yorker’ before being expanded into a full-length novel. The novel that is set in three cities, namely Calcutta, Boston and New York City, went on to become a ‘New York times Notable Book’ as well as a ‘Los Angeles Times Book Prize’ finalist.
The book was also adapted into a 2006 film of the same name directed by Mira Nair, starring actors Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Kal Penn in lead roles. It is an English-language drama writted by Sooni Taraporevala that was released in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India.
The story revolves around Gogol, the lead protagonist, and his experiences through life as he ventures into situations that bring him into internal conflicts because of his cross-cultural background. His parents, Ashoke Ganguli and Ashima Ganguli, are first generation immigrants in the United States. Lahiri explores various subplots throughout the novel but excels at keeping the primary subplot intact in the course of events. Some significant plot points are inspired by real-life experiences of the author, who has excellently stitched the thread of events in this contemporary fiction. Perhaps this is one of the many reasons why the story feels like a warm hug in multiple instances, especially from the perspective of an Indian. It is the simple details that are so quintessential to Indian culture but completely alien to the West, that when specifically mentioned, reminds us of them.
The world of the Gangulis is set in 1960s America and is written from a third person perspective. The reader is a mere spectator into the world of the Gangulis, with no engagement whatsoever, but feeling every bit of it along the way. Apart from fiction readers in general, this book is likely to strike a note with first as well as second generation immigrants living in the West, or perhaps anywhere in the world but not their native country. Also, the simple language makes it suitable for all age groups.
The story kicks off with Ashima and Ashoke’s wedding in 1960 Calcutta, shortly before they shift to Massachusetts. It is a conventional arranged marriage in a typical Bengali family. Ashoke is a postdoctoral engineering student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The author intricately portrays the struggles faced by Ashima in adjusting to this new lifestyle with a new person in a new city, a new country, away from home and family. The relationship between the two of them is also penned down in a realistic manner, one which most people of Indian origin would relate to as they are familiar with the concept of arranged marriage. The attempt at familiarizing the Western audience with this concept appears almost effortless, which makes it even better.
Ashima eventually gets pregnant and her yearning for home during this period intensifies- especially the thought of delivering a child all alone in a foreign land with no family member present. This builds up to the primary plotline of the book, that is, the name of the child. As tradition follows, Ashima’s grandmother is supposed to suggest a name for the child but that never really pans out, as the grandmother dies and her letter never reaches Ashima and Ashoke. They end up naming the child Gogol after the Russian author Nikolai Gogol, a name that holds immense emotional significance for Ashoke.
The reason behind it, as Gogol discovers later in life, I’ll leave for the readers to find out. What ensues thereafter is a development of an identity crisis leading to a conflict of culture and emotional distance within the household. The novel largely covers the formative years of Gogol’s life and him coming to terms with his identity as an intersection between the culture that he is born in and the culture that he is a part of.
Ashoke comes across as a quiet person. He does not ever divulge much about himself. It does not make him an uninteresting character though, as Ashima beautifully complements his silences and reads in between the lines of her husband’s words. He is an honest and hardworking person and a dutiful family man. His fondness of Nikolai Gogol is connected with a train accident that nearly killed him. He had always been a reader, nevertheless. The novel spans roughly 30 years during which Ashima grows from a young timid mother to a mature middle-aged lady. Initially she naturally feels very disconnected from the foreign land and constantly craves the intimacy of home, the closeness of family and the comfort of familiarity. Ashima’s story is that of independence as she learns how to drive and live alone as Ashoke and the kids go to different cities for work and studies respectively.
The most noteworthy trait of the author evident throughout the novel is her attention to detail and the words she uses to portray a particular setting. What is also apparent is that there is no specific beginning or end to the story. It picks up from one walk of life of and drops it at another, and despite that it achieves the purpose of the journey that it set out on. You do not feel like their world has somehow come to end as you finish reading the book. The art of words used by the author, doesn’t for a minute make any of the mundane daily life activities appear mundane- be it Gogol’s regular day at school or Ashima’s mornings in the kitchen or their dinner table conversations.
In Bengali culture, a person usually has two names- a nickname to be used at home and a ‘good name’ to used formally. Both Ashoke and Ashima knew well that Gogol could not be used as their child’s good name and so came up with the name Nikhil. As a kid, Gogol seemed to like his name and insisted on keeping his name as it is. As he started growing up, however, things started to change. American peers at school would make fun of his name as it resembled words like ‘Giggle’ or ‘Gargle’. The additional snag of having a Russian name truly confounds and worsens the awkwardness of young Gogol as he navigates the intersection of Indian and American cultures. This inevitably leads him to despise his name so much so that he ends up legally changing his name to Nikhil before moving to college at 18.
This is symbolic of him trying to build a new identity and starting afresh around a bunch of people who never knew that he had been called ‘Gogol’ for 18 years of his life. It is the beginning of him trying to distance himself from his natural culture that he always felt forced upon or perhaps did not really understand, and integrate himself with the American ways as much as he can. "It is as Nikhil ... that he grows a goatee, starts smoking Camel Lights at parties and, while writing papers and before exams, discovers Elvis Costello and Brian Eno and Charlie Parker"; While all of this is happening, though he couldn’t help but feel a deep rooted sense of betrayal- that Gogol has somehow let his parents down by becoming Nikhil.
Gogol majors in architecture at Yale and later works as an architect in New York. He had three relationships: his first is with Ruth, his second is with Maxine, and his third is his marriage to Moushumi. Gogol and Moushumi have consistently shunned their Indian heritage and any ideas of being married to somebody of the same ethnicity. They are thrilled that they are "fulfilling a collective, deep-seated desire"; on the part of their families when they unexpectedly click on their first date. The romantic relationship between Gogol and each of the women is exquisitely detailed, down to the details of how they met, what brought them together, their passionate moments, and ultimately their anguish and estrangement.
Gogol’s internalised conflicts cause him trouble in his romantic relationships as he struggles to find his way through them. Each of his romances unleash a new hidden piece of himself and bring him to confront an undiscovered part of his identity. The beauty of it all lies in the fact that most of us grow and develop, in or after a relationship and it is not something ground breaking. The author does not try to bring about a unique instance but rather incorporate nuanced layers within the ordinary.
Gogol is closest to his sister Shonali aka Sonia and out of all the family members, she is perhaps his comfort person, his escape and his partner in crime. Both are alike in a lot of aspects as they try to fit in the two worlds inside and outside their home and possibly that is why they understand each other reasonably. Several works on Indian-Americans rely on the glitzy storylines of wealthy individuals, stable families, no divorce, Bollywood, music, yoga, and so forth.
In The Namesake, Lahiri is unique because she acknowledges reality and the facts. Culture evolves, serving both protective and unifying purposes, but attempts to preserve it as the set traditions, through the adoption of ethnocentric and egocentric viewpoints makes a community regressive and leave the children in the dark. Ashima and Ashoke are first generation immigrants, who grew up in their native culture surrounded by family, and naturally that culture is inculcated in them over the years. Their heart lies in India and they have a deep sense of nostalgia for their life in Calcutta. Conflict only arises when they expect and demand the same from Gogol and Sonia,
who were born and brought up in a completely different environment. Gogol and Sonia never liked their trips to Calcutta while it pained Ashima’s heart to think her kids are divorcing their culture and getting ‘Americanised’.
While it's true that this book examines ideas like cultural identity, rootlessness, tradition, and familial expectations, as well as how names subtly (and not so subtly) affect how we see ourselves, it's greatly to its credit that it never falls victim to the clichés those themes so frequently entail. Instead, Lahiri transforms it into a tale about a guy and his family, about his life and hopes, loves, and sorrows. This is what makes, you, as a reader connect with the characters and feel what they’re feeling, with them.
In conclusion, this book isn't just a good read for immigrants; it's also a beautifully written family saga with universal themes: love, the deep bond between a father and son, teenage angst, feeling pulled in two directions but not quite belonging in either, the unpredictability of life and relationships, and real (and occasionally unhappy) endings.
Submitted by:
Anushka Guha
Student at NLU Odisha
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