November's books

Noam:

The Namesake: A Novel Jhumpa Lahiri.

I have always enjoyed novels about the immigrant experience and this is an excellent example. There is a great amount of common ground between all immigrants, in particular, the Indian immigration to the United States has been one of highly educated people with clear parallels to our own experience. I know what we did seems pretty commonplace, but my life on three continents has had its challenges and it does sometimes seem like an incredible journey. 

This quote from Lahiri's  Three continents is close to my heart:

"In my son's eyes I see the ambition that had first hurled me across the world. In a few years he will graduate and pave his own way, alone and unprotected. But I remind myself that he has a father who is still living, a mother who is happy  and strong. Whenever he is discouraged, I tell him that if I can survive on three continents, then there is no  obstacle he cannot conquer. While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon,  I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary.  I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first.  Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have travelled, each meal I have eaten, each person  I have known, each room in which I have slept.  As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination." Amazingly appropriate isn't it! Please read the book before you see the movie, which is also good. Yonatan: Jupiter's travels.

Noam received this a few months back so I won't repeat the blurb. I thought that with your recent interest in motorcycles this might inspire you, though I don't see anyone in our family crossing the Sahara by bike anytime soon!

Noam really enjoyed this, as did both of us.