The Namesake
I have finished reading this well written book. It is simply a book about an immigrant
family, from Calcutta, and their difficulties in the US while trying their best to become Americans, but longing for their extended families back home. It includes the usual generation gap, family tradition, and is soulful. The son lives with a name that he abhors, then years later learns that it it the name of a famous Russian writer,that his father revered. The author Jhumpa Lahiri is a Pulitzer Prize winner. I enjoyed reading this book a great deal, and heartily recommend it.
I have just started reading The Swallows of Kabul. It is a chilling experience, thus far, what with the Taliban, and the tribulations of the people living under this terrorist rule.
“Yasmina Khadra is the nom de plume of the Algerian officer Mohammmed Moulessehoul, who is the author of four other books published in English…..He took the feminine pseudonym to avoid submitting his manuscript for approval by military censors while he was still in the army. He lives in France.”
It is beautifully written. It is a short book, but very effectively written.