Scan barcode
A review by billyjepma
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
5.0
I didn't expect "The Namesake" to wreck me. I expected to enjoy it, and Lahiri's careful, precise prose and emotion was easy to read, and the characters she brought to life were engaging to follow. But I didn't expect their story to get to me the way it did. Lahiri's story took hold of me and carried me into a family's lifetime of soft tragedy, quiet rejections, fierce sacrifice, and beautiful, heart-wrenching, human relationships. It wrecked me by the end of it, tore into my emotions and let them bleed in with those of the Ganguli family.
There are moments in the third act that don't entirely work for me––a switch in narration at one point seemed to rob some of the characters of their agency––but these are of minor consequence in the face of nearly 300-pages of careful characterization and bold, affecting pacing. "The Namesake" is a beautiful novel, one that will linger in me for awhile.
There are moments in the third act that don't entirely work for me––a switch in narration at one point seemed to rob some of the characters of their agency––but these are of minor consequence in the face of nearly 300-pages of careful characterization and bold, affecting pacing. "The Namesake" is a beautiful novel, one that will linger in me for awhile.