The Namesake Quotes

Gogol frowns, and his lower lip trembles. Only then, forced at six months to confront his destiny, does he begin to cry. (2.71)

Being rescued from that shattered train had been the first miracle of his life. But here, now, reposing in his arms, weighing next to nothing but changing everything, is the second. (2.15)

Ashima thinks it's strange that her child will be born in a place most people enter either to suffer or to die […] In India, she thinks to herself, women go home to their parents to give birth, a...

Ashima has been consuming this concoction throughout her pregnancy, a humble approximation of the snack sold for pennies on Calcutta sidewalks and on railway platforms throughout India, spilling fr...

Like a kiss or caress in a Hindi movie, a husband's name is something intimate and therefore unspoken, cleverly patched over. (1.2)

Ashima regrets that they can't go earlier, in time for Durga pujo, but it will be years before Ashoke is eligible for a sabbatical, and three weeks in December is all they can manage. "It is like g...

On more than one occasion he has come home from the university to find her morose, in bed, rereading her parents' letters.

"I detest American television," Moushumi eventually declares to everyone's delight, then wanders into the hallway to continue her reading. (4.2)