{2008 book list} so far...

With both my parents away over the weekend, I had their house to myself, and so began the bookfest... :)

I started with Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, which was wonderful! So much so, that I finished it in under 24 hours...

Synopsis:
The book opens with the birth of a boy to Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli, Bengali immigrants to the US. While his parents wait for an aerogramme from Ashima's grandmother bearing her chosen 'proper' name for the baby, they give him the pet name 'Gogol' after Nikolai Gogol, whose volume of short stories saved Ashoke's life in a train wreck in India. (Don't ask me how - read the book!) When no letter arrives, the child is stuck with the name 'Gogol'. The book follows him into adulthood.

The Namesake is about tradition and rebellion, longing and compromise. Lahiri writes with great sensitivity, creating characters that you can empathise almost entirely with. Chapter 7 was one of the most moving pieces of writing I've read in a long time.


Next, I picked up Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, a classic from the 1930s. It follows the life of Wang Lung, a poor farmer in China, who takes as his wife O-Lan, a servant in the great House of Hwang. Through hard work and love of his land, Wang Lung's fortune rises as those around him slip further into poverty. Interestingly, the greater Wang Lung's wealth, the more tragic this seems.

The Good Earth is not fun, but it is a good read. It gets under your skin and breaks your heart.