Monday, March 19, 2007

The Namesake

I love it when a movie stands up to the book. The Namesake does this. I loved the book and I loved the movie. I read the book a few months ago and found it moving and wonderful. The movie was moving and wonderful, too. I've been to India a few times and have had many Indian friends, but even so, even if I'd never been there and had never been immersed in the India community, I think I would have found it all there and not felt that I was missing something. Same thing re: the book. If you haven't read it, you won't find you're at a loss. (Although I would read the book after you see the movie to fill in details.)

I had that experience with Little Children. I loved the book but really didn't like the movie very much at all--and especially didn't like the narration.

In The Namesake, the only thing I thought was off a bit was why Ashok wants to name his and Ashima's child Gogol, but that could be the trouble of my memory and not the movie.

3 comments:

Don said...

My wife & I went to see it at the Laemmle Playhouse Theatre in Pasadena Saturday afternoon. I immediately went to the Vroman's next door and bought the book. And a cheap Dover edition of Gogol.

Don said...

Listening to the current podcast with the two UCI MFA students. I love it. I would encourage you to do this periodically with students from as many MFA programs as you can.

Anonymous said...

This is good to know. I too loved the book and have been wary of the movie for fear it would disappoint.