| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Namesake for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
‘Extraordinary…a book that spins gold out of the straw of ordinary lives. The calm, pellucid grace of her prose, the sustained stretch of crystal clear writing, its elegant pianissimo tone, pulls the reader from beginning to end in one neat arc. Every detail, every observation, every sentence rings with the clarity of truth. The Namesake is a novel that makes its reader feel privileged to be allowed access to its immensely empathetic world.' The Times
‘The kind of writer who makes you want to grab the next person and say "Read this!"' Amy Tan
'Impeccably written' Daily Mail
'Gracious….in refined, empathetic prose…each of Lahiri's characters patches together their own identity, making this resonant fable neither uniquely Asian nor uniquely American, but tenderly, wryly human.' Hephzibah Anderson, The Observer
‘This is certainly a novel that explores the concepts of cultural identity, of rootlessness, of tradition and familial expectation…but …it never succumbs to the cliches those themes so often entail. Instead, Lahiri turns it into something both larger and simpler: the story of a man and his family, of his life and hopes, loves and sorrows. She has a talent – magical, sly, cumulative – that most writers would kill for.’ Julie Myerson, The Guardian
‘Jhumpa Lahiri’s excellent first novel… is the work of a fine writer, discriminating, compassionate and surprising. It is, too, a story for our times.’ Rachel Cusk, Evening Standard
‘A joy to read.’ Sunday Telegraph
'Eloquent…Lahiri's prose is striking. Spurning the antsy, transcultural wordplay of many Asian-American authors, she writes with journalistic precision. Like a Victorian urban chronicler, she loves to amass inventories. Things matter to her and to her characters; they are bulwarks against drift and confusion. The Namesake…is lucid, generous in its narrative scope, and an extremely accomplished first novel.' Sukhdev Sandhu, Daily Telegraph
'Covering about 30 years…the novel manages to represent, without patronising, life within the confines of a professional expatriate enclave. Lahiri is at her best when mapping these confines, and the conflicts between individual pursuits and family loyalties….Fluid, accessible and…very good indeed.' The Independent
'Good novelists, like Bengali parents, must make their creations unique, and Lahiri's central characters are painfully believable….An extremely good first novel, a glowing miniature of a tiny family making the voyage between two worlds.' Maggie Gee
Observer
Browse and search another edition of this book.
ON A STICKY AUGUST EVENING two weeks before her due date, Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square apartment, combining Rice Krispies and Planters peanuts and chopped red onion in bowl. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
We follow Gogol throughout the first three decades of his life through his ups and downs, his childhood, his education, his relationships, his career and, most of all, his various identity crises. From an early age he belives that he doesn't really fit in, he feels that he alone in the entire world has Gogol as a first name. Also he embraces the American way of life, unlike his parents who try to keep to their traditional Indian way and this too causes him strife. Before going to college he invents a new identity for himself and changes his name to Nikhil, which is both suitably Indian but can be shortened to the more American Nick. Over time both he and his parents adjust their ways of thinking. His parents grow to enjoy American customs such as Christmas and the benefits of American life, while Nikhil embraces his Indian heritage.
The structure of the book seems to hark back to Interpreter of Maladies, it is written in almost a short story style, with different chapters being told from several different character perspectives. Fortunately this is tied together with consistent themes and a mainly constant cast of characters. However, frustratingly, a lot of potential action is lost in between different chapters; relationships end in a blink of an eye and characters disappear never to be mentioned again. Despite this the book draws you along with the depth of its characterisation of both the major and peripheral characters. Jhumpa Lahiri has a passion for her subject and this shows in her writing. She makes you care and feel for Gogol and his family. The book is at once, warm and profound, comforting and deep. Her insight into both cultures, American and Indian coupled with well written prose makes this book both an education as well as a pleasure to read.
It has got all the ingredients of conflict in a person's soul, conflict in a family and conflict in a community trying to stick together in another land. In this novel, the conflict in culture between Eastern vs. Western, The Old World vs. The New World, Father vs. Son is brilliant exposed. I could easily relate to the story as someone who is caught in the same situation himself. I was certainly disappointed by certain parts of the story, but on the whole it was marvelous. I was impressed by the positive reaction to it.
The characters who remind me of some I read in BRICKLANE, USURPER AND OTHERS, and another story whose title i can't remember, are marvelously depicted and made to interact with so much fluidity, tenderness and love. The setting involving India and the USA is genuine. Brilliantly told, Namesake vividly brought out a clash of two cultures and of a boy realizing his father's life. In the end, we come to understand the enormous prize immigrants pay as they abandon their ethnic or national identities in their quests to be accepted in their new countries.
Bengali family hailing from Calcutta move to the east coast of the USA. Read more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
