Friday, October 12, 2007
Small moments
Something I really enjoyed about "The Namesake" were the many small, seemingly mundane moments and details that carried great significance for the characters. Beginning with Ashima stepping into Ashoke's shoes before she's even met him. And then Ashima's address books, carefully recording every move in each family member's life.
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Oh! I loved the shoe thing, too! And the descriptions of the food she would make. And the vermilion in their part. And how Western-style funerals appalled Ashima (pumping preservatives in someone and coating them with makeup and burying them in a velvet-lined box). The adress books were great, too. And the Christmas cards. Ashima was really a great character. I loved when she started working at the library and made an assortment of friends outside the Bengali community.
And, back to your question about Lahiri writing from the male point of view, I don't know if I just had a lot more natural interest in Ashima than in Gogol or if Lahiri had more of a knack for writing about Ashima, but it seemed like I connected more with Ashima as a reader.
Yeah, it did seem like the Ashima moments were much more vivid and personal. I've read that the movie focuses much more on Ashima and doesn't leave her entirely after Gogol grows up. It would be interesting to see if that makes for a more or less successful story.
WHy do you suppose Lahiri focused on Ashima at first? I mean, she did a lot with Ashoke, telling about the train wreck and all, but our first glimpse into Gogol's world seems mainly driven by Ashima — how she came to make peace with America, etc. Maybe it's because she was a housewife and spent more time with Gogol than his dad did.
Oh my God, I loved the part where the family went to Cape Cod and Gogol and his dad walked to the very tip. (I'm trying to find what Ashoke said at that moment. It was very cool. Do you remember?)
Oh, I LOVED that part! This is it:
"Will you remember this day, Gogol?" his father had asked, turning back to look at him, his hands pressed like earmuffs to either side of his head.
Over the rise and fall of the wind, he could hear his father’s laughter. He was standing there, waiting for Gogol tocatch up, putting out a hand as Gogol drew near.
"Try to remember it always," he said once Gogol had reached him, leading him slowly back across the breakwater, to where his mother and Sonia stood waiting. "Remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go."
Yes, that's it! Thanks for finding it.
"Remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go."
That is so beautiful.
(And then there's the whole Pilgrim thing with Cape Cod, too, the first place they landed ... another people who came to this land and hoped to preserve their way of life, but who became someone else altogether...)
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