The Namesake

Gogol, a name he didn't pick, carrying a father's survived train wreck. Names are accidents with cargo.

He changed it to Nikhil and felt lighter and emptier. Renaming is surgery without anesthesia.

Ashima's rice crispies with peanuts, the first immigration recipe every child should learn.

Maxine's family swam like they owned the pond. Gogol loved the ease and not the ease's cost.

Ashoke's page of Russian short stories on the wrecked train. A book as a bloodline.

Moushumi's affair with the past tense. Marriage annotated in French.

The party where Ashima announces she's going home to India, alone, at last, by choice.

Father's death in a university library, reading. The book's cruelty is its gentleness.

Gogol opens the Gogol again, at last, on New Year's Eve. Full circle without applause.

Carried out of it: your name is a letter you haven't opened yet. Open it.