Title: The Namesake
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri. Won Pulitzer Prize for Interpreter of Maladies.
Other: A movie that has the same title based on this novel was released.
Do you want to change your name? Or your life?
Why did my parents give me this pathetic name? Isn't it violent that parents give the innocent baby a name they like, and the poor baby has to deal with it for the rest of its life? It's all because of the name: The reason why he got teased by friends, and the reason why he doesn't have a girlfriend. Why on earth did the parents give him this shitty name??
Pet name and Good name
His parents came to America as soon as they got married in India. They had no relatives here, but they nonetheless settled down happily. The problem arised, however, when the baby was born. They had to pick the baby's name even before they got discharged from the hospital.
Bengali people have Pet names and Good names. They call their children Pet names, but only Good names must be written in papers and documents. So they put a lot of effort and time to decide what the Good name will be. It's not uncommon to take months, even years to choose the Good name for the baby after they're born.
It's not like they didn't try. They asked their grandmother in India to choose the Good name for the baby. But the letter that had the information somehow got lost, and soon the grandmother died; nobody knew what the Good name she chose was. The parents didn't get disappointed, though. They thought they could come up with the Good name in the end. We don't need to hurry, they told themselves. What they didn't know was that in America, the baby needed birth certificate before they left the hospital.
The parent panicked. How can we choose his Good name right this moment? Since they had no choice, they wrote his Pet name to the birth certificate: Gogol.
After years of contemplating, they chose his Good name, Nikhil. They saw an opportunity when Gogol entered the kindergarten, and wanted to change his name to Nikhil. But they faced another problem. The son, who'd been living as Gogol for his 5-year life, refused to be called another name.
But Gogol doesn’t want a new name. He can’t understand why he has to answer to anything else. “Why do I have to have a new name?” he asks his parents, tears springing to his eyes. It would be one thing if his parents were to call him Nikhil, too. But they tell him that the new name will be used only by the teachers and children at school. He is afraid to be Nikhil, someone he doesn’t know. Who doesn’t know him. His parents tell him that they each have two names, too, as do all their Bengali friends in America, and all their relatives in Calcutta. It’s a part of growing up, they tell him, part of being a Bengali. They write it for him on a sheet of paper, ask him to copy it over ten times. “Don’t worry,” his father says. “To me and your mother, you will never be anyone but Gogol.” (p 57)
If he'll always be Gogol, why does he even need a new name? Having a Good name can change his life? It's too much to understand for a 5-year-old boy. So, he just remained as Gogol.
Source: Goodreads
Will "Nikhil's life" be happier than "Gogol's life"?
Gogol's father, Ashoke, had a big train accident when he was in India, years before he got married. Ashoke survived the accident, but he had to go through several surgeries and rehabilitation over the years. He had Russian writer Nikolay Gogol's book with him at the train when he was rescued before he was sure he'd die. So the book came to bear special meaning to him. The book, or the name Gogol, represents miracle, the second chance, turning point, and watershed to him.
But Gogol, who didn't know about father's story, came to hate his name as he became a teenager. Why do I have this weird name? It's not an American nor Bengali name. Why Russian writer's name, for god's sake? I don't even know who that writer is! Why don't I have the Good name like other Bengali friends? Who would want to go out with a "Gogol"? How could a "Gogol" live a cool life?
Gogol hated Nikolay Gogol, his books, and his own name. He hated his parents, who had given him this shitty name, who still wanted to live in Bengali way even though they had lived in America more than a decade. He wanted to change his name into Nikhil, the Good name his parents prepared for him when he was young. It seemed that if he could become Nikhil, instead of Gogol, he could somehow be a cooler and better person. Could he really? Will "Nikhil's life" be happier than "Gogol's life"?
As a Korean who's been living in America, I can easily empathize with Gogol. Bengali people are very much like Korean people in many ways, and I'm impressed with the immigrant parents-children issues this book is dealing with. (Personally, I like this book better than "The Native Speaker" by Change-rae Lee.) But you don't have to be an immigrant to fully enjoy this book because the parents-children issues are universal. The character Gogol alone, who hated and ignored his parents and finally realized that he loved them, can make this book interesting enough to pick up.
A Few Good Lines from the Book
1.
Right before the train accident, Gogol's father Ashoke was talking to another passenger.
“Do yourself a favor. Before it’s too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it. One day it will be too late.” “My grandfather always says that’s what books are for,” Ashoke said, using the opportunity to open the volume in his hands. “To travel without moving an inch.” (p. 16)
2.
Even after he was rescued, Ashoke was suffering from the trauma.
It is not the memory of pain that haunts him; he has no memory of that. It is the memory of waiting before he was rescued, and the persistent fear, rising up in his throat, that he might not have been rescued at all. (p. 21)
3.
Gogol and his sister Sonia had to remember numerous terms they used to address relatives in India.
There are endless names Gogol and Sonia must remember to say, not aunt this and uncle that but terms far more specific: mashi and pishi, mama and maima, kaku and jethu, to signify whether they are related on their mother’s or their father’s side, by marriage or by blood. (p. 81)
It's very similar to Korea. We also have 이모, 고모, 이모부, 고모부, 외숙모, 외삼촌, 큰아버지, 작은 아버지 etc. to signify whether they are related on their mother’s or their father’s side, by marriage or by blood.
4.
Even afte he changed into Nikil, he didn't feel like Nikil. What did he really want to change?
There is only one complication: he doesn’t feel like Nikhil. Not yet. Part of the problem is that the people who now know him as Nikhil have no idea that he used to be Gogol. They know him only in the present, not at all in the past. (p. 105)
Disclaimer) There's only first part of the storyline in this review to introduce the book. No major spoiler included.
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