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 enlarge | Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $13.99 (100%)
New (109) Used (345) Collectible (10) from $0.01
Rating:  478 reviews
Sales Rank: 4305
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0618485228
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
UPC: 046442485227
EAN: 9780618485222
ASIN: 0618485228
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Disappointing September 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Friends say that I should have read "Interpreter of Maladies" first, since this book isn't a reflection of the author's real talent. Unfortunately, I was so disappointed by this book that it will take quite a nudge to get me to read her earlier books.
This book is boring, prose uninspired and characters one dimensional. What did I learn about the characters? Only Gogol's parents were half-way interesting and all we get about them is present tense, descriptive reporting on their past and current lives. Even family death in this book reads like a newspaper report. The excrutiating detail of quotidian trivialites and what seemed like product placement forced me to skim paragraph after paragraph for the few existing, relevent bits of information from which to glean anything to make me care. As an immigrant's tale of living between two cultures it's been done many times better, many times before. Non-plot driven books don't have to be boring and I don't require an exciting page turner as long as there is some depth and talent in the writing. The author inserts "knowing" bits of local (mostly geographical) data about Boston, Calcutta, Yale and New York throughout the book, I'm not sure why. To prove she's been there? She utterly failed at evoking the torn "between-two-worlds" of her characters, and her descriptions of their physical surroundings can be found in any tour book or popular culture magazine advertisement.
Tale of a 1st generation Indian immigrant - different! September 27, 2008
I read this book because my daughter's freshman college class was asked to read it, so I knew it must be something pretty special. It's not a book I would have been likely to pick up otherwise.
Though my grandfather was a first generation Italian, I think the book was so unique to me because I knew very little about the Indian culture.
It was a beautifully told story and portrayed well the tension that a first generation American feels, wanting to fit in and sometimes ashamed of his parents' eccentricities, yet grateful for the sacrifices they've made to provide for their children.
Worth the read!
Aspiring Yuppies Indian-style August 25, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Being a great fan of Lahiri's short fiction, for example, A Temporary Matter, I found none of that complexity in this novel. There is no plot in terms of conflict or dilemma -- the biggest mover of the book is time passing. While the parents' experience at assimilation was interesting, their nostalgia for India very sympathetic, the children were flat characters. Gogol's most compelling conflict is if he'll dump his family for his girlfriend's idealized WASP family (painted in the label-conscious colors of a Ralph Lauren ad). It was fascinating to learn along with Gogol that one simply doesn't use parmesan cheese on seafood pasta, but if one is looking for serious literary complexity and heart, find nourishment elsewhere.
 A wonderful read August 12, 2008
Beautifully written, captivating characters, great story. So wonderful my husband read it after I did and felt the same.
Fun to read August 12, 2008
The story, in general, was about the lives of Bengali migrants, how they fit in their new surroundings, and how their children reacted to Bengali traditions and customs. It is quite similar to a few other books before it. But The Namesake is written well and reading it is every bit as enjoyable as watching a movie. It is a little "chick-lit" but I liked it.
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