The Namesake Review

<< Books : Friends For Life >>

gatorIndex: 3.0/5.0
When/Where : On Continental from CLE to PHX

I picked up this book as the next great read from the Pulitzer winner Jumpa Lahiri, expecting an emotional journey down memory lane.

Well I hate to say, the book disappoints a little. Not that it is a bad read or anything. As is said, You are a victim of your own success. Lahiri set high standards for herself with the The Interpreter Of Maladies and this book, I am afraid to say, is not at the same level.

The intensity did not match her previous one and lacked the depth to carry me through the same emotions as the namesake felt.

The author seemingly innocuously bounces off complete years from Gogol's life without warning and on more than one occasion, I had to go back to see if I had unintentionally skipped over some pages or left out some prose.

The curtness with which the author decides to end the four-odd courtships that Gogol has also strikes me as absurd.

A few pages into the novel and you will realize lahiri's fascination with detail. But in a 289 page book that walks us through the life of the namesake, hardly a page ON THE WHOLE is dedicated to the breakups. May be she just wants to do away with the pain and go on with life?

Ruth, from Yale during his undergrad years
Maxine, from his days at Columbia
and Moushumi
all walk out of Gogol's life in less than a page worth of words.

hmm... enough of my analysis, like anybody cares.

Lets wait and see how the movie of the same name directed by Mira Nair comes out like and I believe it will no different.

All in all, the continuity and intensity to sustain my interest was missing in this book.