Side 3 , Side 2 : The Beatles in Jhumpa Lahiri ’ s The Namesake
that his lover Naoko ’ s favorite song is “ Norwegian Wood ,” a song her older friend , Reiko , in a guitar recital after Naoko ’ s suicide , plays along with “ Yesterday ,” “ Michelle ,” “ Something ,” “ Here Comes the Sun ,” “ The Fool on the Hill ,” and seven other standards , whose lyrics and melodies offer emotional relief to Naoko ’ s survivors . These popular tunes also resonate in the minds of readers , increasing their bond with the characters .
Although not as pervasive in Jonathan Safran Foer ’ s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ( 2005 ) and Kurt Vonnegut ’ s Timequake ( 1997 ), the Beatles again make their mark . The group appears in the third sentence of Extremely Loud , when the 9-year-old narrator Oskar , trying to make sense of his father ’ s death in the 9 / 11 attacks in New York City , says , “ I could invent a teakettle that sings the chorus of ‘ Yellow Submarine ,’ which is a song by the Beatles , who I love ” ( 1 ), as did his father : “ Dad always used to tuck me in ... and sometimes he ’ d whistle ‘ I Am the Walrus ,’ because that was his favorite song ” ( 12 ). So smitten is he with the Fab Four ( whose “ Yellow Submarine ,” composed by Paul McCartney with children in mind , 1 is the song from their catalog best suited to ease a child ’ s sadness ) that he imagines inventing a door lever that would trigger the playing of “ Fixing a Hole ” or “ I Want to Tell You ” ( 14 ). Late in the book , with “ Hey Jude ” on the radio , Oskar confides , “ It was true , I didn ’ t want to make it bad . I wanted to take the sad song and make it better . It ’ s just that I didn ’ t know how ” ( 207 ). 2
Timequake also keys into the Beatles on the first page , where Vonnegut extols their artistry : “ I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit . I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off . I reply , ‘ The Beatles did ’” ( 1 ).
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