Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Excellent take on [Indian/Bengali] immigrants

Jhumpa Lahiri is nearly as brilliant in Namesake as she was in the Interpretor of Maladies. Namesake is the story of Gogol, son on Ashoke and Ashima Ganguly. The Gangulies hail from Bengal and throughout their life try to reconcile with their alienated existence in a foreign homeland. The son, Gogol, a namesake of a Russian writer, struggles to come to terms with his love and life. He is born American, flesh and blood Indian and named Russian. The name was given to him as Gangulies never received the letter sent by an aged grandmother carrying the name for Gogol. It was Gogol's book that Ashoke was reading, when he nearly died in a train accident, so the name is forever dear to him. What Gogol does not understand during Ashoke's life, becomes partially apparent to him after his father's death (an extremely moving description).

The novel is about misplaced homelands, about misunderstandings between generations, about the pain and pining of an immigrant, about family values and about an individual who learns from a series of engaging events and conversations the significance of everything he considered meaningless and perhaps, foreign. Namesake is a novel that is brilliant in the description of typical immigrant Bengali families, and does commendable job in capturing the essential conflicts within and among the family members of immigrant families.