The Namesake-Week 6 Post B

The Namesake is still keeping me pretty entertained. What I have been thinking a lot about is that in just a few pages Gogol goes from being five to ten. I don't know if I like this yet. For one it means that I am missing a lot of details of Gogol's life and what happens in between that time. On the other hand, I like that we don't have to go through all the details in his childhood so we can move on to more exciting things perhaps. So I see both a positive and negative to this writing choice. What I do for sure like though is Jhumpa Lahiri's writing style. It is quite elegant and pleasing to read, and is not frustrating to read like a few authors I know (i.e. Cormack McCarthy). The major theme that is present in this novel is finding one's place in society and in a culture. Here it is Gogol that is going through the struggle to find his own place and culture or to whether to follow Bengali traditions. So far, he has not enjoyed the Bengali scene that much, he is a very independent boy. Instead of going to Bengali language and culture classes, he would rather be at his drawing classes at the library. I wouldn't necessarily say that Gogol is trying to fight the Bengali culture, but just more that it doesn't interest him as much as his personal hobbies. I know more is to come out of this culture theme as I read on, so I will continue on with The Namesake and comment more later!

-Grace