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Adrift between worldsJhumpa Lahiri explores assimilation, culture in 'Namesake'
By Todd Leopold
(CNN) -- He is born in Boston. His parents are Indian immigrants. He is named for a Russian writer. He seeks his fortune in the ultimate melting pot, New York City. Is it any wonder that Gogol Ganguli, the protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri's new novel, "The Namesake" (Houghton Mifflin), spends the book stumbling among cultures, trying to figure out who he is? Lahiri, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1999 volume of short stories, "Interpreter of Maladies," is attracted to the issues of culture clash and assimilation, particularly involving Indians and Americans, and can relate to the issues faced by Gogol. Her background -- she was born in London, England, grew up in Rhode Island, went to school in New York and Massachusetts and now lives in Brooklyn -- has informed her work. Indeed, she looks at her immigrant parents and senses they have a rootedness in Indian and Bengali culture missing from her own life. "I felt like [my parents] had a place they could think of as a home," she says in a phone interview from Brooklyn. "I never felt fully confident about belonging here, about being American, but I was never that connected to anywhere else." The book is not autobiographical, she adds, but she admits drawing on aspects of her family and friends' lives. "I'm not the protagonist, nor do I share the lives of my characters, but I feel I grew up in that world, and I knew a lot of people who grew up that way," she says. Prize came as a shockAlmost certainly, however, none of those people have had to face the scrutiny given Lahiri when she emerged out of nowhere to win the Pulitzer.
"Interpreter of Maladies" was her first book, and Lahiri didn't have big hopes for its success -- or her own. "I didn't think I would amount to anything significant," she says. She wanted to be a writer, yes, but the idea was to train to be an academic -- she earned a master's in creative writing and later a doctorate in renaissance studies -- and support herself through her job. Instead, she found herself the toast of the literary world at age 33. "It was a shock. I really was so ... almost disturbed I had been selected," she says. "I didn't understand why it happened. ... I had to work to kind of accept it. It just seemed so surreal to me." Still, she was able to begin work on "The Namesake" without feeling too much pressure. "The prize was about that book, and the book was no longer a part of me," she says. "I didn't feel afraid to write; it's just that there was more attention. But it was all so abstract and meaningless. "Writing is so hard," she muses. "It's always going to be a struggle." Juggling responsibilitiesWriting "The Namesake" was a process of widening nets, she says. The story always revolved around Gogol, but originally he was the immigrant, not his parents. Then Lahiri decided to make his life closer to her own, which allowed her to delve into the differences between Gogol's background and that of his mother and father. Even those characters have major differences: The mother is a traditional Bengali woman and retains many of the old ways; the father -- though also somewhat traditional -- adjusts more easily to American life. Gogol himself is caught between worlds. Indeed, his name is meant to be temporary -- a pet name -- but his belatedly given "good" name, Nikhil, never takes.
Of course, the name "Gogol" is no accident. The character's father admired the Russian author, revered as the creator of carefully drawn works such as the short story "The Overcoat," and Lahiri's tenderly painted details echo that of the great 19th-century Russians, such as Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov or Leo Tolstoy -- favorites of the author. She says she hopes readers are curious enough to pick up their works, though she maintains she had "no didactic purpose." Meanwhile, Lahiri's life may be more hectic than it was after the Pulitzer. She gave birth to a son while writing "The Namesake," which has redrawn the lines between her work and home life. "Before my son was born, I'd get up and try to write for four hours. That was ideal," she says. "It's not possible anymore." She finished the book before the child was 6 months old, but for future endeavors she has rented a space outside her apartment. "I feel like I have to remove myself," she says. "My new plan is to work in the studio, but it will be a challenge."
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I had to work to kind of accept it. It just seemed so surreal to me.
