the namesake

at work, playing through my headphones isn't top 40 or cheesy 80s music -- not recently at least. i've been taking to audiobooks. i don't have to pay as much attention as i do listening to npr. more rewarding that listening the other radio stations. its waxes poetic most of the time. often i try to catch up on the classics that i should have finished years ago. because i have no commute, i am not very well read.

today, i just finished the namesake by jhumpa lahiri. it caught my attention through a trailer for the movie based on the book. kal penn, of harold and kumar fame, plays one of the lead roles. both the book and the movie trace an immigrant bengali couple and american born children through their experiences in the states.

i've always been a sucker for movies dealing with immigration. something about struggling to keep identity in a foreign place gets me going. the movie was great, just too short i felt like there would be so much more in the book. so i took to it.

i've always believed that the immigrant experience (at least within the states) is pretty similar. that is part of the reason i volunteer at the maes when everything says i should be at moca. "reading" the book the beliefs are reinforced.

within the book they mention groups of indian families going on road trips together getting lost, eating samosas, the kids calling their parents friends auntie and uncle. over the weekend, my friends and i got together for a bbq. on the grill were various meats, marinated with lee kum kee sauces. my friends kids would call me suk suk, uncle, on day they will figure out that they have absolutely no relationship to me.

next audiobook, i should pickup a cyndi lauper biography. but i think it might be founding brothers, something i started years ago. hopefully i'll be done before july 4th.