The Namesake

Jhumpa Lahiri 2003

Devastation Rating

Emotionally Ruined
immigration India identity family

Our Take

Gogol Ganguli resents his name his entire childhood and only discovers its weight when it is too late. Lahiri traces the gap between immigrant parents and their American children — the grief of each generation for what the other cannot understand. The train accident that begins everything is never explained and does not need to be.

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