Looking for a good book to read??????

As a way to relax and learn, we Ursulines turn to reading good novels. Here is an example of one.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

This novel is about immigrants from India who move to Cambridge, Massachusetts to start a new life.

The story begins when Ashima and Ashoke go through an arranged marriage. Soon after, they leave their country to create a new life in Cambridge. The reason they left India was because Ashoke was offered a teaching job and the opportunity to attain his PhD in electrical engineering. Ashima and Ashoke hardly knew each other when they moved to Cambridge. Ashima is left alone during the day while her husband works and studies. She is very lonely and misses her family in India.

Soon after Ashima and Ashoke are expecting a baby boy. Whilein the hospital, the parents come to realize that the law in the U.S. does not allow them to wait for a "Good Name" to arrive from India. The custom in India is when a child is born it takes weeks for the child to be given a name. Ashima asked her grandmother in India to send a name for her son. Ashoke names their son "Gogol", thinking it is only temporary, until the "Good Name" arrives. Well, it doesn't and Ashoke and Ashima have no choice, but to put the name Gogol on the birth certificate

Gogol grows up as a first generation American. He attends Yale and changes his name to Nikhil. While at Yale, Gogol tries his best to leave his family's way of life behind. He tries to reinvent himself, but not even a name change allows Gogol to leave his own identity.

Towards the end, Gogol comes to appreciate his parent's struglles when they first arrived in Cambridge, the world they left behin, and the new one they created in Cambridge.

Sr. Nancy