![]() ![]() Gogol is a troubled kid, and the main thing that irks him is his rather wacky name. Her fictional counterpart is Gogol Ganguli, who comes of age over the course of the novel and comes to terms with his complicated, multicultural identity. That exploration is based in part on her own experiences growing up in America as the child of Indian immigrants. In The Namesake, Lahiri explores this tug between the two worlds – the Indian world and the American one. But it could just as easily apply to Ashima and Ashoke, the Bengali couple who travels to the United States and raises a family in Lahiri's first novel, The Namesake. ![]() That's our oh-so wise author, Jhumpa Lahiri talking about how her parents felt as Indian immigrants in the United States. ![]() They are always hovering, literally straddling two worlds" ( source). ![]() "Each boat wants to pull them in a separate direction, and my parents are always torn between the two. "The way my parents explain it to me is that they have spent their immigrant lives feeling as if they are on a river with a foot in two different boats," she relates. ![]()
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