What is the author's style in The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri?

The point of view of this novel is third person omniscient. The author uses Gogol and Ashima as narrative characters most often. However, the novel is written heavily in exposition, or descriptive passages, which allows the author's own voice to come through almost as often as those of her characters. The author uses this technique in order to cover a great deal of time in a short number of pages. This technique also allows her to tell her story tightly and with great control without the added richness of dialogue and a multitude of dramatic scenes.

The point of view works well because the author is careful to denote changes in narrator with chapter breaks or paragraph breaks. The author is also cautious when allowing her own voice to shine through, rarely making outright statements. This keeps down the confusion that can happen with such a narrative style. The point of view is engrossing and allows the reader to become emotionally attached to the characters in a way that makes the reader care how the plot develops and where the characters will end up at the end of the novel. The point of view is clear and concise, easy to read and appropriate to the plot development.