The Namesake

What makes a good book? Is it the suspense? The drama? The comic situations? To me a good book is one that has interesting protagonists, its always about the people in the book. If there is a common thread of connection between who I am and a character in the book, even better!!
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is a good book to read. It is like an extension of the last story(The Third and Final Continent) in her first book- The Interpreter of Maladies. For those of us who are not familiar with immigrant life in the U.S.A, this book gives you a small glimpse of it. For all those who have experienced the immigrant life, this book will bring back memories - memories of leaving your kith and kin for a foreign land, of the first windy fall and the first clock change and the first snow!!
The book is like a flashback of events that have happened in my life and the lives of people I know and so I like this book. I do not agree with everything in the book. But I do believe that Jhumpa gives us quite a nice picture of the life of Indian immigrants and the dilemma that the first generation of American Indians face as they are sandwiched between the culture of their parents and the culture of their peers.
I do believe that no matter who we are , what we do and who we marry, it is up to us to keep ourselves satisfied. Joy is a gift from God that comes with the assurance of His love and salvation. There is nothing in this world that can equal that.
So anyway, I read the Namesake last year and I will go see the movie. I hope it is as good as the book.