Namesake
It is not a great story that Jhumpa Lahiri is trying to tell in this book. In fact it is hardly a story, let alone a great one. Just a portrayal of the life of a family of immigrants; legal ones, and well qualified professionals at that, from India, who choose to settle in the land of opportunity that the United States of America is for so many all over the world.
And yet, it is a story superbly and sensitively told. Highly unusual, almost heretical it is for me to have read a work of fiction. And yet, I may be excused because of the highly unusual source which recommended it - the Economist. And not in the "Books and Arts" section (which I almost never read / listen to) but in the featured column that was exploring the issue of immigration!
The protagonist is Ashoke Ganguli from Calcutta who after completing his PhD in Engineering settles in the US with his wife to pursue an academic career in the same discipline. That's where their two kids - a boy and a girl - are born. Ashoke who is an avid fan of the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol names his son 'Gogol'. Gogol goes through life trying to find himself in the collage of his Indian heritage, American upbringing and Russian Namesake. That in a nutshell is the story - rather plain if you ask me.
What elevates the book to great heights though is the detail it portrays. The peculiarities of the problems the young bengali couple face in their new homeland are somehow comic and profound at the same time. The 'clash of cultures' they experience is highly relateable. In underscoring the idiosyncracies of Bengalis and Indians, Lahiri touches upon the issues and feelings that immigrants of all hues and provenance have to deal with. At the same time Gogol's slow and at times painful journey of self-discovery also skillfully combines the unique with the universal. Ultimately, this interweaving is what makes the book an excellent read.
Fiction though it is, I would recommend it.