20. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri I've wanted to read this book for many years, and it was not quite what I was expecting. This is the story of Gogol Ganguli's life. Gogol is the American-born son of Bengali parents, whose father is inspired to explore the world by a terrible accident and the author Nikolai Gogol. The book is well written, in a style that reminds me of Haruki Murakami. However, Lahiri's language is less complex and her descriptions less weird for the sake of being weird. Yet, it is the same clean, direct sentence structure that creates an insular world from which the reader is held just a little aloof, the better view from which to appreciate it. I am very interested in Indian culture, particularly Bengali, since a good friend of mine is Bengali. Therefore, many of the foreign words, usually describing food, were familiar to me, but they may not be to most readers. Much of the story takes place in Massachusetts, and I can relate to the detailed descriptions...
Life, Books, and SFF