The Namesake is the story of an immigrant Bengali family living in the US – the Gangulies.

Ashima Ganguly gives birth to a baby boy in 1968. Her husband Ashoke, had a scrape with
death in a train accident 7 years earlier and believes that the book he was reading – The Overcoat
by Nicolai Gogol – was a lucky charm which saved him.

They end up naming their son Gogol, the namesake of Nikolai Gogol.

This odd name turns him into an introvert and he decides to change it to a more acceptable
Nikhil. The book takes us through Gogol’s life as he grows up, attends an Ivy-League school,
becomes a successful architect, falls in love with an American girl, breaks up with her, marries a
Bengali girl and ends up with a divorce.

As a desi in America and a vilayati in India, the perils of an American-born-Indian child is

brought out beautifully in the situations where Gogol and his sister Sonali visit Calcutta.

The way Gogol tries to distance himself from his family and his Bengali origins ought to make
you angry, but Lahiri explains his emotions in such a detailed and vivid manner that you end up
empathising with him.

The difficulties that a traditional Indian house-wife faces in a foreign land, amidst new people,
new language and a new culture is excellently portrayed through Ashima’s character.

Not limited by the size of a short story, like in ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ and ‘Unaccustomed
Earth’, Lahiri extravagantly builds up her characters. The sophisticated Ashoke, timid Ashima,
confused Gogol, and all others, Americans and Indians alike, have flair.

In ‘The Namesake’ you do not just read the story of a family; you get to live with them, feel
their sorrows, share their joys, understand their bewilderment, and empathise with them; you get
to be a part of the story.