"That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet." 
 I could not have said it better myself. With her book Lahiri allowed me to travel to the US, to experience the American Dream within the body of a foreigner, a person constantly divided between two cultures, two countries. Lahiri writes beautifully about a new generation; children of immigrants living in the US while clinging to Indian traditions. It is a constant identity struggle, emphasized in the main character's aversion towards his own name; Gogol. 
 Lahiri has filled her novel with complex characters; nuanced, flawed and impossible not to sympathize with. Ashoke and Ashima are examples of the harsh realities when moving to a new and unknown country, leaving their heritage and family behind, and trying to integrate without losing the values they were raised to appreciate. 
 The second generation, Gogol and Sonia exemplifies a deep confusion connected with their cultural identities. Gogol tries to fight this confusion by taking on a new name and thereby attempting a rebirth of his identity, and he desperately tries to distance himself from his parents. 
 In spite of everything, the book ends on a hopeful note; it is a journey towards acceptance and understanding - a beautiful coming-of-age novel and a unison between two cultures. 
 "They were things for which it was impossible to prepare but which one spent a lifetime looking back at, trying to accept, interpret, comprehend. Things that should never have happened, that seemed out of place and wrong, these were what prevailed, what endured, in the end."