Book Review Assignment: Reading the Story of Gogol

Book Review
Your Name
Your Institution of Affiliation
March 11, 2017
After reading the story of Gogol (or Nikhil), I was impressed with how it captured the whole scenario with people of foreign origins, where they embrace the “popular culture” and forget where they originally came from. I like the idea that the story is straightforward and that it elicits a lot of emotions from its readers (based on my own experience). However, what piques my interests the most is the idea that it has ‘much more’ than what is literally written. In my opinion, the element which makes the plot very effective in delivering that message is the way how the plot mixed the message with the intense emotions that were elicited, due to his father’s death. However, it is undeniable that the story – its plot and characters – could still be interpreted in a much deeper way than how it is written. In my opinion, the main protagonist (Gogol) could be regarded as anyone who shuns his/her own origins just to embrace what most people ‘seems to want’/popular culture. Following from this, Ashoke (Gogol’s father) could be interpreted as the protagonist’s own culture which he has shunned, while the death of Ashoke is the decline/death of culture due to his act of denying it. Lastly, Maxine and Moushumi – Gogol’s love partners –could also be interpreted as the culture that he is trying to embrace (pop culture) and his own (Bengali), respectively. And, as he left Maxine and went for Moushumi, this could symbolize his renewal of his own beliefs and preferences towards where he came from. However, this is just my own ...