The namesake
I just finished reading "the namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri and thought of writing about it here.
However, I want to be able to do justice to write about such a lovely book, I just wish a ton of reading good books would somehow magically give me a way of writing good stuff as well. I have come to believe that I am one of those pristinely ungifted from the "bandekaran" empire from Terry goodkind's fantasy land. There is absolutely no trace of the gift of magic called "art" of any sort whatsoever that I can imagine in myself...
...which reminds me that I also finished a marathon run of reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series -- all of those -- in a matter of just over 3 weeks.
The namesake, a simply and beautifully told story of the 32 years of this guy "gogol", is very realistic in every sense - the characters, their lives and thoughts. This is unlike most other stories with similar context of Indian immigrants to the US. Most such stories would exaggerate the indianness and the americanness of the characters to bring out the contrast or to add a touch of humor or sarcasm.
"The namesake" doesn't seem to do that and still presents the cultural differences so well that it registers immediately.
I recently stayed in Cambridge, right outside MIT for close to a year and so, the setting of the story in MIT with places and shops in central square and Harvard square seemed all the more real to me.
The whole "reality" of the namesake was in a sense diametrically opposite to the flights of fantasy in Terry goodkind's lands of wizards and saurceresses and the mother confessor.
After those marathon sessions of fantasy, this was exactly what I needed to read
However, I want to be able to do justice to write about such a lovely book, I just wish a ton of reading good books would somehow magically give me a way of writing good stuff as well. I have come to believe that I am one of those pristinely ungifted from the "bandekaran" empire from Terry goodkind's fantasy land. There is absolutely no trace of the gift of magic called "art" of any sort whatsoever that I can imagine in myself...
...which reminds me that I also finished a marathon run of reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series -- all of those -- in a matter of just over 3 weeks.
The namesake, a simply and beautifully told story of the 32 years of this guy "gogol", is very realistic in every sense - the characters, their lives and thoughts. This is unlike most other stories with similar context of Indian immigrants to the US. Most such stories would exaggerate the indianness and the americanness of the characters to bring out the contrast or to add a touch of humor or sarcasm.
"The namesake" doesn't seem to do that and still presents the cultural differences so well that it registers immediately.
I recently stayed in Cambridge, right outside MIT for close to a year and so, the setting of the story in MIT with places and shops in central square and Harvard square seemed all the more real to me.
The whole "reality" of the namesake was in a sense diametrically opposite to the flights of fantasy in Terry goodkind's lands of wizards and saurceresses and the mother confessor.
After those marathon sessions of fantasy, this was exactly what I needed to read
Labels: books
posted by Manish at 5:31 AM
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