The Namesake Lesson Plan

What is unusual about the way that Lahiri portrays Ashoke's death?

Students may observe that the narration, like the narration of the rest of the book, seems simultaneously intimate and distant. Lahiri's tone doesn't change at all when describing Ashima's reaction to the news or Gogol's visit to Cleveland; she delivers these emotional moments as facts, specifically and without sentimentality. She describes all feelings as a series of actions and desires: Gogol thinks of his father, doesn't want to lie on the couch, pays attention to the light rather than "feeling" sad or distant or alienated. Actions are described, moments remembered, but Lahiri rarely even alludes to...