Popular Culture Review 30.2
Overcoat ,” which he had been reading at the time of the accident . Only when a rescue worker sees this page fall from Ashoke ’ s raised hand is he saved . When his son is a 22-yearold senior at Yale , Ashoke tells him about his near-death experience at the same age ( 122 – 24 ) and the reason why he , his son , is named Gogol , in honor of an author and a story Ashoke have adored since childhood ( 18 ).
Ashoke initially tries telling his son about the accident on Gogol ’ s 14 th birthday in 1982 . The first reference to the Beatles happens then : “ Later that night [ Gogol ] is alone in his room , listening to side 3 of the White Album on his parents ’ castoff RCA turntable . The album is a present from his American birthday party , given to him by one of his friends at school . Born when the band was near death , Gogol is a passionate devotee of John , Paul , George , and Ringo ” ( 74 ). Gogol “ sits cross-legged on the bed , hunched over the lyrics , when he hears a knock on the door ” ( 74 ). It is his father , bearing a gift : The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol . Gogol has never read a word of this Russian author responsible for a name that “ manages ... to distress him physically , like the scratchy tag of a shirt he has been forced permanently to wear ” ( 76 ). Ashoke lingers as the record plays ; Gogol wants to get back to the lyrics ; his father begins to speak , but “[ t ] he music ends and there is silence .... Gogol flips the record , turning the volume up on ‘ Revolution 1 ’” ( 77 ). Seeing John Lennon ’ s “ obituary pinned to the bulletin board , and then a cassette of classical Indian music he ’ d bought for Gogol months ago ... still sealed in its wrapper ” ( 78 ), Ashoke decides that the story of Gogol ’ s name will have to wait . The right time comes 8 years later .
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