A Book about Gogol, but not the Russian Writer

I have recently started reading “The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri, and although I have not finished it yet, I have enjoyed it so far. In the first 60-odd pages the book talks about the birth of Gogol, the main character, and his sister Sonia. The book starts with the arranging of the marriage of Ashima and Ashoke, Gogol and Sonia’s parents. Their marriage starts in a difficult way because it is an arranged marriage and neither of them know each other. But Ahima goes with Ashoke to America anyway and they get to know each other. Ashima, at first, cannot bear the United States because she has lived her whole life in Calcutta. Eventually, they get to know each other and Ashima gets used to the United States and they decide to have a child. That’s where the story of Gogol begins.
One of the main parts of this story is immigration. This is also a controversial topic in the upcoming presidential election and is mentioned constantly in the debates. The book talks about the struggles Ashima goes through adjusting to America. The book highlights struggles with immigration by mentioning how it is difficult for the Ganguli’s (Gogol’s family) to find friends that are not Bengali. They do find many Bengali friends that act as honorary aunts and uncles when they have special events for their newborn children.

One thing that really stands out to both Ashima and Ashoke that is completely different from Calcutta is that in Calcutta they have both a good name and a family name. The good name is what everyone calls them and the family name is what family calls them. However, in the United States there is no such thing. Their family also has a tradition of having Ashima’s grandmother choose the name of a newborn child and so when Gogol is born they wait on a letter from Ashima’s grandmother, which gets lost in the mail. When they try leaving the hospital after Gogol is born, they have to come up with a name to put on the birth certificate, so they choose Gogol. At first, they wanted Gogol to be his family name but when he goes to kindergarten, he does not respond to anything else, so that is what everyone calls him.

Overall, this is a great book and a very well written one at that. I have enjoyed it so far and will probably read the rest of it. I would recommend this book but there are some sad moments and if you are someone that has lost a loved one this book may trigger some of that trauma. There is also a movie based on this book and I do plan to watch that movie sometime in the near future.