The Library will be closed on Monday, March 30, 2026.

Book Club: The Namesake

Three stacks of books surrounding three opened books, with a pair of glasses set on top.

Date(s):

Monday, May 18, 2026

Time:

11 a.m.

Type:

In Person

Audience:

Category:

Language:

English

Description:

Join us for a conversation about The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri.

The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of their arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name.

Lahiri brings great empathy to Gogol as he stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations our parents bestow upon us, but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves.

 

For ADA accommodations, call (213) 228-7430 at least 72 hours prior to the event.

Para ajustes razonables según la ley de ADA, llama al (213) 228-7430 al menos 72 horas antes del evento.

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