This novel confuses me. I don’t know if it’s the how each chapter follows the other in such a choppy way or the fact that our narrator is a literal psychopath but every time I read this novel my I feel like my brain gets bigger from trying so hard to understand it all. I was so confused that I couldn’t even think of a movie that could relate to this novel so I decided to pick The Dinner Movie.

 

Paul is crazy. Claire is crazy. Michel is crazy. Rick is crazy. Babette is crazy. Beau is irrelevant. Serge is dumb. That’s basically all the characters in The Dinner summarized. It’s crazy how Serge, the character I bashed so much in the first part, somehow became the only character I liked in the whole book. He is the only one with a semblance of sanity in that family. First of all we have to adress Paul’s mental illness which causes him to get violent so quickly as seen when he beats up Serge and the Principal. He clearly has something wrong with him and the discovery that he had stopped taking pills really made me nervous near the end of the story. Another thing to discuss is the fact that everyone seems to forget and forgive what he does. Him beating up Serge should have ended their relationship and beating up the principal should have landed him in jail. But none of that happened. I really started thinking of this when Paul said “Get the fuck out of here, you pervert!” (Koch 227) to “Tonio” and the next chapter continues as if that didn’ even happen. Tonio should’ve really just beathen the crap (I don’t know if I am allowed to swear on my blog and ain’t no way I’m taking the risk to losing marks on my already poor blog)

 

Babette and Claire who seemed to be like angels in the first part show their craziness by planning to cripple or disfigure Serge so that he can’t go to his press conference to do the right thing. Rick and Michel who thankfully didn’t change and stayed dumb and crazy from part one till now decide to kill Beau or atleaast make him vanish in order to hide their crime. Beau seemed irrelevant because his death really didn’t affect me in any way and his significance to the plot was so little. Serge who I hated so much in the first part just seems like a semi-honest and decent man albeit lacking a few braincells. Why would you not have your brother arrested after he smashed your face with a frying pan. Why would you not have your sister-in-law arrested after she disfugured you.

Overall this book has been enjoyable to read due to it’s interesting and intriguing plot but my brain doesn’t seem to have enough IQ to read it without breaking down a little bit.

 

 

 

The book got a lot spicier in this part compared to the previous one. Maybe one reason for this is the fact that they finally stopped describing food on and on. What really surprised me were not the bombshells that were dropped but rather the way how the bombshells were revealed so smooth and seamlessly. Actually, I guess they are no longer bomb shells anymore huh?

To recap what went down during these 15 chapters, we learn that Michel has been going with Rick to punch homeless people and that is what Paul had seen when he picked up Miche’s phone by accident. On top of that we learn that they were also involved in the burning of antoher homeless person who ended up dying. This story apparently goes viral and the security footage of this is posted on youtube. We learn that the whole reason for this dinner happening was for the two families to discuss what to do about their children As we were coming to terms with that shocking suprise, we learn that Serge’s adopted son Beau has been blackmailing both Michel and Rick into continutong to commit these crimes adn taking videos of it all. (My mind is so confused that I can’t even remember the order that all of this happens in)

All of this has made the novel much more interesting to read as everything seems so unexpected. First of all I have a big criticism for Michel. Learn to put a password on you phone!! If you are gonna be doing such horrible things and trying to hide it from your parents then atleast put some sort of security on it so that your secrets don’t get exposed. Other than that, my view on Paul changed quite a bit as he seemed both respectable and stupid at the same time. His love for his son led him to ignore the ethics of wether he should make his confess. Instead he tries to convince him that he is safe. This reminded me of the movie The Foreigner which tells the story of a man seeking revenge for his daughter’s even resorting to commiting crimes in order to do so. This blind love seems stupid at first but when I begin to myself in their shoes, I can’t decide wether I would do the same or not.

Another part I found interesting was when Paul was talking about how “there was something about that first-name-basis business that had always appaled [him]” (Koch 105). He was talking about how kids calling their parents by their names felt weird to him. I can relate to that a lot as this point is emphasized even further in my culture. According to my parents, I have to call everyone by their title or status. For example, my cousin just got married and rather than calling her husband by his name, I have to refer to him with the equivalent of “cousin-in-law” in my language. In my eyes there is no point in this as he can’t even understand our language but my parents stay adamant about this. When I was a kid they had even tried to make me call my brother by his title but I managed to convice them otherwise over time on that.

 

 

To start off with, The first 16 chapters to me so far have been very weird to me as some of them are interesting while others are just straight up boring. I will get into the reasons later but for now, I’ll just talk about what I understood from the chapters. In the beginning, we are introduced to Paul, Claire, Serge, and Babette along with all their children

 

 

 

I’ll just state the obvious and say that Serge is very dislikable. I felt it the moment he walks in and tries to seem knowledgeable about wine food. I don’t know if it is just me but the know it all attitude is horrible and it is even worse when you are faking it which Serge seems to be doing. Other than that we get slight hints of what the future plot could be about with Paul and Claire’s son Michael seemingly holding a secret that has Paul shocked. We also know that there is something wrong between Serge and Babette due to her swollen eyes coming in and their argument when Paul is in the bathroom (We will talk about the bathroom later). My guess is that it is an affair which kind of reminds me of the Great Gatsby hence why I decided to compare the two. Directly when I read about Babette I thought about Daisy as their situations seemed similar. When it comes to Serge, however, I think he is a cross between Gatsby and Tom of all people. Serge seems to have the annoying attitude of Tom and also a similar relationship with his wife but he does seem similar to Gatsby in the sense that he is just pretending all of his class and wealth by attempting to show off his wine knowledge and such.

Now that we are done with the boring stuff, let us talk about the spicy details. First of there seems to be something going on between Babette and Paul. The first proof is when they greeted each other and Babette seemed to give him some suggestive kisses rather than the three air kisses that you normally would give. That could be overlooked but Paul later says “it might, in Serge’s eyes, raise the suspicion that I was trying to close ranks with his wife. Which was true, of course, but I couldn’t be so obvious” (Koch 46). That could mean just taking her side but after all the novels that I’ve read for English, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had another affair going on there. Another spicy this in this novel was the bathroom scene. Yeah, that was a wild part that has me a bit more nervous for reading more because the descriptions are overly detailed.

 

Well. The book is finally over. That also means this is the last blog for now. Writing this blog has helped me look at the book in a brand new way that I have never done with any other book. It kind of made this book feel a bit more personal. Overall this is one of the better books I’ve read as it tells a story without any action and very little drama and yet it still seems so interesting. Alright, enough of that let’s get into the blog.

(Dramaalert, 2017)

To start off with can we all just have a moment of silence for Gogol. This man has had one of the most depressing lives that I’ve ever seen. For this week I decided to compare this to a movie that I found which is coincidently called The Namesake. This movie has a lot of similarities to the novel to the point where it’s almost uncanny. One of the more memorable things that happened in this part is Gogol’s marriage to Moushumi and everything that came with her. Moushumi is someone that is heavily integrated into western society, even more than Gogol and Gogol seems to find this point difficult to accept. It was during these points that I discovered how Gogol has just been switching sides between his western part with Maxine and his Indian part with Moushumi both of which don’t seem to work out for him. Now coincidentally there is a Gogol in the movie as well who goes through a very similar life to our novel Gogol (wow what a surprise). As the story moves on we see both of our Gogols realize that they don’t seem to have the same type of relationship that  Moushimi that his sister Sonia has for her partner. We see this in a family dinner with Gogol wondering “Did he make her happy?” (Lahiri 271). All of this ends with Gogol discovering Moushimi’s affair with Dimitri in the novel and Pierre in the movie. This ends their marriage in both the movie and the novel.

The Namesake, Fox Searchlight Pictures, 11 March 2007

Although I can’t really relate with what Gogol experiences in his relationship, I can relate with the idea of Gogol not being able to fit in as 100% American nor 100% Indian. I also feel the same way about this after spending half of my life in Nepal and the other half here in Canada. Although this should mean that I am 50/50, it feels more 30/70 as most of the time I spent in Canada were my defining years.

Imgur 50/50,  Thefluffernutter, Dec 4, 2014

The ending of the book was quite moving as the now old Gogol finds his father’s Nikolai Gogol books and starts reading it, maybe finally understanding what his father thought of when giving him his name.

The Namesake, Fox Searchlight Pictures, 11 March 2007

That’s it, folks. The final blog post about the novel The Namesake. It has been a lot of fun writing these every week and to share my thoughts with everyone. I hope to do it more often.

A lot happened in this part, so much so that I didn’t even know what to relate it to but in the end, I had to settle with Black Mirror. This show is an Anthology show which starts each episode brand new. This time I’m going to be relating to Season 4 episode 2. Both the Namesake and this episode talk about parenthood and the control they have over their children. I relate to this as my parents tend to control and restrict my actions a lot. Although Gogol does not have restrictions as strict mine, he too feels that he feels more free on his own and with the people he chooses  as his friends as seen when he goes on a trip with his girlfriend and say that “That here at Maxine’s side, in this cloistered wilderness, he is free” (Jhumpa 158).

The Namesake, Fox Searchlight Pictures, 11 March 2007

(I’m so glad there is a movie for this and although the movie was not recommended, It helps me visualize the characters so much easier)

The struggle to be free is also the same in Black Mirror albeit a lot more darker as the daughter’s every move is captured by her mother and recorded by a chip implanted in her head. This is a whole new level of overprotective and no spoilers but It does not help their relationship at all and just ruins the lives of everyone involved. Although I and Gogol/ Nikhil (or whatever he wants to be called) face restrictions, we should also be glad that we have parents who do it because they love us rather than a crazy control freak who believes they own their child.

Black Mirror, Netflix, December 4, 2011

That’s my blog for this week. The book has me excited for what’s to come as now we are moving on to the grown-up Nikhil who may or may not lead a similar life as me in the future. Who knows although I hope we will be different because Gogol seems to just have the wors life and from the tone of the novel, I don’t think it’s going to get better.

 

The feeling of coming into a culture and lifestyle foreign to you can be tough. It’s difficult to integrate into something different from what you’ve gotten used to. This can be seen in both Oliver Queen from The Arrow and Aishma from the Namesake.

Arrow,  The CW Television Network, 10 October 2012

The Namesake, Fox Searchlight Pictures, 11 March 2007

Both Oliver and Aisma are put in a situation which is far from home and they have to adapt to the new circumstances. They manage to settle in slowly with the help of friends and family such as Gogol and Ashoke for Aishma and Slade and Yao Fei for Oliver.

Memecenter.org, 2013

Although the stakes are different, The similarities between the novel and the show make it easier to understand and also help keep things interesting as I can predict how things go as I read on. For now, I predict that Aishma will still struggle and be held by the thought of home as Oliver was but will eventually be able to settle into her new home.

That’s It for this week folks, now I got to get back to reading this book. Next week we talk about something. Be sure to stay updated.

Book

Memecenter.org, 2015

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton