Five Days of Books:: 3

Yet another book I have read in the past month is The Namesake  by Jhumpa Lahiri.  I actually saw a movie trailer for this book and it intrigued me, so I decided to read the book first and have yet to see the film.  It's on my to do list for sure.  The Namesake is a fascinating look into the life of an immigrant's family as they try to be American yet hang on their culture.  The story follows the Ganguli family who come to America in the 1960's as a young married couple from India.  As the story progresses, the couple has two children a boy, Gogol, and a girl, Sonia.  Gogol takes on the main character role and you see his life unfold from birth to adulthood.  He struggles deeply with being Indian and also American.  One of his main gripes is his name.  He feels that it brings out many stereotypes of Indian people and therefore wants to change his name, all the while never really knowing the history of his namesake.   This book appeals to the side of me who would love to be a fly on the wall in someone else's life-- just observing, rooting for them to make good choices and grieving with them when they don't.  Again, this is another book I'd highly recommend.  Now I just need to see the

movie!