the namesake

ok, so we watched the film version of this favorite bookclub book last evening......and we were impressed by how moving the movie turned out to be......some elements were added for drama, i suppose....such as the mamma's musical career that she returns just before the credits rolled.....though it wasn't in the book it felt right, somehow....i did feel strongly the differences between my family's immigrant experience and that of this collective clan.....the german contingent went to great lengths to dissolve into society......to jettison visible/audible differences as much as possible...when my grandfather was dying in a nursing home, i asked him why i had never once heard him speak german.....and he replied that his mother had asked him....do you want to be german or american?.....whenever german came out of his mouth.....and so he chose, like so many chose.....especially in the years leading up to WWII.......and especially given what happened to the japanese immigrants......and though i know for certain that my german cousins were fighting against us at some point, i also see that they had little choice in the nazi-controlled era......kind of like the northern and southern folks had to make nice to make things move forward......but i digress from the namesake.....other than to acknowledge that i have no idea what it feels like to be visibly and audibly different......and why this movie was so moving in its desire to help me understand just that notion......