http://www.one.org
Jax Place
"For Our Feature Presentation"
Friday, April 09, 2004
The Namesake
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

I was looking forward to reading this after I read her first book, Interpreter of Maladies. But I was disappointed when I finished the book. Lahiri's so good at developing and describing her characters. That it almost felt like I grew up with them. But in the quest to develop her characters, she somehow forgot to develop her story. And when I finished the book, I was still confused about the story.

But don't get me wrong. I still love the book. I love Lahiri's writing style. It makes me feel part of the story and this book is no exception. She wrote the characters of the Ganguli family and their friends so well that they all felt like real people. That when I go to Boston or to New York or to India, I will meet the same people. And if you like that or you're a fan of Lahiri, then give this book a try.

Other reviews:
From Barnes & Noble
An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name. Lahiri brings great empathy to Gogol as he stumbles along a first-generation path strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents, but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves. The New York Times has praised Lahiri as "a writer of uncommon elegance and poise." The Namesake is a fine-tuned, intimate, and deeply felt novel of identity.

From the New York Times
Jhumpa Lahiri's quietly dazzling new novel, The Namesake, is that rare thing: an intimate, closely observed family portrait that effortlessly and discreetly unfolds to disclose a capacious social vision. … In chronicling more than three decades in the Gangulis' lives, Ms. Lahiri has not only given us a wonderfully intimate and knowing family portrait, she has also taken the haunting chamber music of her first collection of stories and reorchestrated its themes of exile and identity to create a symphonic work, a debut novel that is as assured and eloquent as the work of a longtime master of the craft. — Michiku Kakutani

Other book reviews for The Namesake
posted by Jax @ 10:34:00 PM  
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home
 
About Me

Name: Jax
Home: San Francisco, CA, United States
About Me:
See my complete profile
I am a freelance writer, editor and blogger.
I write from home and I write from the
coffee shop I manage. I am also a graduate
student at AAU, studying film.
I have never been more stressed in my life.
And I am loving it!
To know me and more about my writing services, drop me a line at
jtabergas [at] yahoo [dot] com.
Meanwhile, read some of my works here:
  • HubPages
  • The Movie Space
  • Couch Tuber
  • Flick Rev
  • Good Life Review
  • 'Bout Books
  • Afterthoughts
  • Powered by FeedBurner

    Add to Google Reader or Homepage
    Subscribe in NewsGator Online
    Entertainment & Lifestyle - Top Blogs Philippines

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Previous Post
    Affiliates

    Barnes & Noble Recommends 120x90

    Archives
    Links
    Powered by

    BLOGGER


    blog search directory
    Listed in LS Blogs


    Personal Blogs - Blog Catalog Blog Directory

    Blogarama - The Blog Directory
    Pinoy-Blogs.com
    Pinoy Blog Directory
    Pinoy Hot Blogs
    Blog Flux Directory
    Personal Blogs - Blog Top Sites
    Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com

    Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.