The Namesake

What one word or phrase do you think best describes the book? Feel free to expand.

Like the characters in the book, have you found yourself in a new place before? Share about the experience. • In what way was your experience similar, and in what way was it different?

How does Gogol try to remake his identity after trying to rename himself? What are the results? • How do our names define us, both in our families and in society? • How important is a name to you? • How are names in your family chosen?

How does Ashima try and make over her home in Cambridge to remind her of what she’s left behind in Calcutta? • Are her efforts successful, or does this make her long more for India?

Ashima finds that people take a sudden interest in Gogol’s birth. How do children change our place in the community? • Have you ever connected with someone you may have otherwise never spoken to through children?

Ashoke is saved from a massive train wreck in India in his youth. Is Ashoke’s love for his family more poignant because of his brush with death? • Why do you think he hides his past from Gogol? • What moments define us more: accidents or achievements? Mourning or celebration?

What do you think Gogol wants most from his life? • How is it different from what his family wants from him, and what they wanted when they first came to the U.S.? • How have expectations changed through generations in your family?

Lahiri said, “America is a real presence in the book; the characters must struggle and come to terms with what it means to live here, to be brought up here, to belong and not belong here.” Did The Namesake allow you to think of America in a new way? • Do you agree that America is a real presence in the book? • How is India a presence in the book?

Ashima and Ashoke’s marriage is arranged. Gogol’s romantic relationships are very different from his parents. What draws Gogol to his lovers? • From where do we take our notions of romantic love: family, friends, society, media, a combination? • How does your cultural heritage define your ideas of love?

How does the death of Gogol’s father turn him back to his family? • How does it change Sonia and Ashima’s relationship?

What do you imagine Gogol might do after the book ends?

What is your main “takeaway” from The Namesake? • What will you remember months down the road?

Would you read other books by Jhumpa Lahiri?