Given that the book is rooted in identity crisis borne from a child’s name, it only seems right to name the author with her full Bengali name. A name that she was given in London, UK by her immigrant parents who later immigrated to the United States when she was 3 years old. That Lahiri deeply understands identity shifts for immigrants was clear on display in the short stories of Interpreter of Maladies; in Namesake, it rubs you raw.

From the start of the book, I was hooked. I was hooked with dismay, as I realized I was in for an emotional read of yearning, longing, growth, grief, and heartache. So much heartache. The book is set in Massachusetts, revolving around the family of Gangulis – Ashoke, and Ashima, a newly married, arranged-marriage couple who settled in a land distant from Calcutta where they’re from. Ashima, having moved after the wedding to stay with her husband, goes through the heart-wrenches of missing festivals back home, missing her family, missing the food, and the Bengali culture, just like each of us who moved here from thousands of miles away. And just like each of us, Ashima and Ashoke slowly settle in, finding their circles of friends who substitute as uncles and aunts for their kids, finding their neighborhood Bengali supermarket, and tailoring new traditions around their festivals. Gogol, their first child, remembers with annoyance how all his birthdays were reasons for his parents to get their friends together, how the boisterous group of Bengalis would crowd in their living room, the pans of cooked food still in their cooking utensils atop the dining table, the endless rounds of food, drinks, and more food. The story then moves to focus on Gogol, as it would for the remainder of the book. I didn’t like Gogol, I didn’t like his entitlement, his disrespect for his parents, or his resentment of all things Bengali. Maybe I saw too much of myself in his parents, it’s hard not to.

As Gogol grows up, we see him make choices – from his friends, to romantic relationships, city he chooses to settle in, and who he chooses to settle with. We see the influence of the choices his parents made reflect in his choices, sometimes directly, sometimes through rebellion. The book follows Gogol’s life, through the everyday, but what touched me the most were the aspects of his parents, and his family back in Calcutta.

The book was heart-wrenching to read, for me, perhaps because it hit a little too close to home.