Customer Reviews
Insight into integrationof first generation children - By: J. Southern, 29 Aug 2008 
This follows the life of a young boy born to Indian parents who have moved to teh US. His journey is one of trying to fit in in his local culture without losing the Indian culture he was brought up with. The road is not smooth & the author captures the conflict he feels well.
a predictable theme - By: A. Singh, 01 Jul 2008 Okay, I've read alll 3 of Jhumpa Lahiri's books & am starting to detect a distinct theme!
Bengali family hailing from Calcutta move to the east coast of the USA. Probably Boston or Cambridge. The first generation have some difficulty fitting in: language, accents, loneliness... The 2nd generation find themselves having to be two different characters: the western ones in school & yet still very much Bengali at home. This causes resentment, arguments with parents & some soul searching. Add in a splash of rebellion - girls, drugs... & some beef eating!
Eventuallly an acceptance is reached between parents & their children. The parents accept their children's shortcomings & the children realise that while they live in the US, they are not WASPs.
That said, I love her books. Each is some simply & beautifully written. It is easy to identify with the characters, to see the quiet desperation in their lives.
Brilliant but flawed - By: P. Bird, 09 Jun 2008 I love Jhumpa Lahiri's writing & can't get enough of it. If you like literature, this is a wonderful read even if, at times, there is too much detail & towards the end I found myself jumping paragraphs. Also, there is a serious flaw in this novel. Gogol is totallly passive, & as such could easily have been written as a woman & the story could have been exactly the same. Still, I don't want this view to put anyone off enjoying a book which I found hard to put down.
Immigrant Experiences - By: LindyLouMac, 24 May 2008 An easy to read excellent moving & realistic account of the immigrant experience of a Bengali family. I reallly enjoyed this book & learnt about a culture I am not familiar with at the same time.
rather dull - By: Jane Rosemarie Thorogood, 20 Jan 2008 
I was reallly looking forward to reading this, but gave up halfway through.I found the characters quite stereotypical & Gogal was a wimp-I had no sympathy at alll for him. The story just did not seem to go anywhere, just a long-winded ramble about identity.It needed a bit of spice.
