Pultizer Prize Winner Jhumpa Lahiri Returns with the Namesake

Pultizer Prize Winner Jhumpa Lahiri Returns with The Namesake npr.org All Things Considered: August 29, 2003 Interview by Melissa Block

1. In what year did Lahiri win the Pultizer prize? ______2. How old was she? ______3. What was the name of the book? ______4. What is the name of the American-born Bengali child at the center of The Namesake? ______5. Where did Lahiri first hear that name? ______6. In general, what is The Namesake about? ______7. In the novel, the wife never calls the husband by his name. Why not? ______8. Instead, what is the English translation of what she calls him? ______9. TRUE FALSE Lahiri was trying to write a story that was critical of Indian culture. 10. To what does Ashima compare being a foreigner? ______11. Fill in the blanks: Like pregnancy, being a foreigner, Ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of ______and ______. 12. In what year does the story begin? ______13. Lahiri compares the story (narrative) to: a. riding on a plane b. writing from the brain c. riding on a train d. riding on a subway