The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

I read this book years ago, and I've been wanting to re-read the Jhumpa Lahiri books that I remembered thinking were so good. After reading this, I can't wait to revisit Interpreter of Maladies, which were her short stories, because I have heard they were even better. This book is basically the story of one Indian family who moves to America and how they change and grow over three decades of living in America. Their two children are born in America and are torn between their Indian ancestry and their American upbringing, and the story mainly follows Gogol, their son, who struggles with his name and its meaning and what he knows about himself. It also follows the mother, Ashima, at the beginning and at the end. I felt like this book gave such an eye-opening look at what it is like to be an immigrant from another country, the feeling of separation from home that you must always feel and the disconnect between what you know and what your children know, and the struggle that the children feel in trying to be a part of what their parents are forcing them to care about. I feel like I have much more I could say about this book, many more half-formed semi-coherent thoughts I could write if I had more time, but it's time for bed and I will have to save them for another day.