853 ratings | 33 reviews
avg rating: 4.41

(since July 07)

Charles's bookshelves

read (864)
currently-reading (1)
to-read (33)
books-to-buy (10)

Charles's friends (200)

	Book Pig 10053 books 256 friends
	Jayne 1776 books 768 friends
	brian 610 books 75 friends
	McKenna 278 books 88 friends
	Jeannie 72 books 479 friends
	Ben Mullins 635 books 153 friends
	Juliet 1162 books 505 friends
	David David 655 books 111 friends
	Patricia 32 books 591 friends
	Kay 867 books 386 friends
	Linera 1685 books 174 friends
	Beth 43 books 2416 friends
	Elena 149 books 19 friends
	Daniela 223 books 37 friends
	Bradley 228 books 384 friends

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Charles Lambert

author profile

born

October 23, 1953

gender

male

place of birth

United Kingdom

website

http://charles-lambert.blogspot.com

genre

Literature & Fiction

about this author

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books by Charles Lambert

combine editions
avg rating: 4.36 | 11 ratings | 8 distinct works

	See You Next Tuesday (Paperback) by Various avg rating 3.92 — 12 ratings — published 2006	my rating:
	Little Monsters (Hardcover) by Charles Lambert (Goodreads author!) avg rating 4.44 — 9 ratings — published 2008	my rating:
	Sea Stories (Paperback) by Desmond Barry avg rating 4.00 — 5 ratings — published 2007	my rating:
	The Scent of Cinnamon: and Other Stories (Salt Modern Fiction) by Charles Lambert (Goodreads author!) avg rating 4.00 — 2 ratings — published 2008	my rating:
	The Elastic Book of Numbers (Paperback) by Marion Arnott avg rating 3.50 — 2 ratings — published 2005	my rating:
	NW15: The Anthology of New Writing Volume 15 (Paperback) by Maggie Gee avg rating 4.00 — 1 ratings — published 2007	my rating:
	The Boss (Hardcover) by Charles Lambert (Goodreads author!) avg rating 0.00 — 0 ratings — published 2000 2 editions	my rating:
	Your Inner Edge: Business Success and Inner Development Through High Performance Training, Self Motivation and Warrior Spirit (Paperback) by Charles Lambert (Goodreads author!) avg rating 0.00 — 0 ratings — published 2003	my rating:

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Charles is currently reading

	10/14 Charles is currently reading: Words from a Glass Bubble (Hardcover) by Vanessa Gebbie bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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Charles's recent updates (rss)

October 14

Charles marked as to-read:
Death by Zamboni (Paperback)
by David David Katzman (Goodreads author!)
bookshelves: to-read

my rating:

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Charles is currently reading:
Words from a Glass Bubble (Hardcover)
by Vanessa Gebbie
bookshelves: currently-reading

my rating:

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Charles voted on the poll: Who do you want to win the 2008 United States presidential election?

October 13

Charles read and liked Daniel's review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist:

"A few decades ago, before publishers felt the need to justify the eight dollar price tags of mass market paperbacks with page counts of 400 or more, a thriller novel could be as tightly plotted as any Hitchcock masterpiece—and lean books like John ...more A few decades ago, before publishers felt the need to justify the eight dollar price tags of mass market paperbacks with page counts of 400 or more, a thriller novel could be as tightly plotted as any Hitchcock masterpiece—and lean books like John LeCarre’s The Spy Who Came In From the Cold were both global bestsellers and geopolitical commentaries at least as astute as most now forgotten serious non-fiction studies of the Communist Threat. By bloating themselves with romantic subplots and chase scenes, thrillers have lost much of their ability to thrill. Still, they sometimes find themselves ahead of the news. When Gorbachev and Reagan had warmed to one another, there was a brief period in which the United States seemed to have no significant foreign enemies. Serious scholars wrote about “the end of history,” and many joked that writers like LeCarre had been put out of business. Thriller writers, however, merely cast about for the next great threat. China was a top candidate for a time, but the Middle East quickly became the preferred source of villains.

When the 9/11 attacks occurred it was widely noted that Tom Clancy’s novel Debt of Honor included a passenger airliner being flown into the Capitol Building by a suicide pilot. (Not as noted: The pilot was not Muslim but Japanese.) The Turner Diaries also ended with a White Supremacist terrorist flying a plane into the White House, but that character was, of course, the hero of the novel. Still, the media image—provided by thriller novels as well as the movies made from or inspired by them—of the Islamic male as the author of spectacular mayhem was so widespread that not only did nearly everyone comment that the attacks seemed like something “out of a movie” but they had little doubt, before any evidence appeared, that Middle Eastern terrorists were responsible. This was not even something new. When the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed the media immediately cast it as an act of Islamic terrorism. Even after Timothy McVeigh’s arrest and conviction, some had trouble letting this notion go—the theory that Sadaam Hussein was in collusion with McVeigh had currency amongst some in the White House who lobbied for the Iraq invasion of 2003. Indeed, when they were not in the news in connection with actual terrorist attacks, the only time most Americans heard or read about Middle Easterners was when they were represented as terrorists in thrillers.

Now the Islamist terror and America’s reaction to it is the dominant story of our time, one needn’t even go to the supermarket for their fix of fictional representations. 24 provides a weekly supply of interrogation porn on television and respectable authors like John Updike and Martin Amis employ their powers to enter the minds of suicide bombers. But with the publication of The Reluctant Fundamentalist we get a literary perspective on current events that has been largely missing. The book’s cover design does not shout thriller. It looks, in fact, with its image of an unshaven Pakistani man’s face partially covered by strips of flag, like another of the many non-fictional memoirs that have appeared in the past few years, with subtitles such as My Two Years in Gitmo. And the fact that the author, Mohsin Hamid, was born in Pakistan and educated at Princeton and is writing about a character born in Pakistan and educated at Princeton, might lead one to suspect that this is, like many novels, a thinly veiled memoir. The word thriller does, however, appear on the front cover, in a blurb, and while this book doesn’t even crack the 200 page mark and no murdered art historians are to be found within, it is a thriller, in the same sense that Graham Greene’s entertainments were thrillers.

Hamid’s protagonist, Changez, speaks directly, and cordially, to “you,” an American (who may or may not be a tourist) at a café in Lahore. He assures you that he loves America and proceeds to tell his story. A lucrative position at a slightly cultlike New York valuations firm raises him out of his family’s financial ruin and begins to give him an American outlook on the world. He starts dating a beautiful writer, Emily, and easily blends in to multicultural Manhattan. But when the 9/11 attacks occur, Changez feels a sense of pleasure, not he says at the loss of life, but at the idea of America brought to her knees. After all, he asks you, “Do you feel no joy at the video clips—so prevalent these days—of American munitions laying waste to the structures of your enemies?”

At this point, Changez’s assimilation begins to come undone. On business trips, he is subjected to intense scrutiny at airports while his colleagues travel on without him. On the streets he is glared at by drivers. Pedestrians mutter insults. Emily stops returning his calls and at first he believes it has something to do with the attacks and his ethnicity. The actual reason, he learns, is perhaps more troubling—Emily is sinking into clinical depression and obsessing over a previous boyfriend who died of cancer. She tells him, “I kind of miss home too. Except that my home was a guy with long skinny fingers.” He tries to hold on to his love for America and for Emily, but neither seem to want him anymore.

On a trip to visit his family in Pakistan, at a time, late 2002, when a war with India seemed inevitable, Changez’s perspective changes. He acquires the sense—perhaps the same one Americans felt briefly after 9/11—of being a citizen of a homeland under siege and starts to think about what responsibilities such citizenship entails. When he returns to his job he wears a two week old beard that evokes images of terrorists in the minds of his co-workers. A friend advises him to shave, telling him, “You need to be careful. This whole corporate collegiality veneer only goes so deep.”

As America, wrapped up in its 9/11 memorial and the run-up to the Iraq invasion, ignores Pakistan’s troubles (or, as he comes to believe, even encourages India’s aggression), and Emily vanishes, Changez acquires twin obsessions, personal and political, and begins making choices that eventually lead to the very conversation you are having with him in Lahore. I will not reveal the ending, but will say that it, unlike the artificially twist-heavy endings of most bestselling thrillers, is logical and genuine. The book doesn’t mean to merely shock, it sets out to create “a certain shared intimacy” with a character that events may have led you, as an American, to see as your enemy.

http://mullatari.parastrophy.c......less "

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Charles read and liked Beth's review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist:

"Great title. Amazing start. Abrupt and uncomfortable ending. I could not put this book down.

I seldom pick up a book without first perusing the reviews of others to see if it will be worth my while and this book was no exception. So I will nev...more "

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October 12

Charles made a comment in the group Guilty Pleasures—Your first LGBT book? topic:

Charles wrote: "The Erl-King by Michel Tournier when I was thirteen-ish. Unless you count the friendship between Phi...more "

October 06

Charles marked as to-read:
Saying Uncle (Paperback)
by Greg F. Gifune
bookshelves: to-read

my rating:

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October 05

Charles took the never-ending book quiz.

questions answered:	414
correct:	335 (80.9%)
skipped:	210
best streak:	15
questions added:	0

beat his score »

Charles gave

to:
How Late It Was, How Late: A Novel (Paperback)
by James Kelman

my rating:

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see all 864 of Charles's books »

Charles's favorite quotes

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."
— Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)

tags: books, classic, humor

1752 people liked it

"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."
— Friedrich Nietzsche

tags: friendship, love, marriage

1161 people liked it

"To love would be an awfully big adventure."
— J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

tags: adventure, love

447 people liked it

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."
— Mark Twain

tags: censorship, food

284 people liked it

"It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not."
— André Gide

tags: life, love

248 people liked it

see all of Charles's favorite quotes »

Charles's groups (recent posts)

Books I Loathed — 989 members — last activity 2 days ago, 05:25AM
This is a public forum for people to kvetch (cleanly, please) about books they absolutely hated, and for others to respond. Though nonfiction is certa...more

Guilty Pleasures — 389 members — last activity 1 day ago, 06:52AM
Forum for discussing/recommending queer texts, open to the idea that the definition of "queer" is still in process. Interests in all genre...more

¡ POETRY ! — 1120 members — last activity 1 hour, 25 min ago
No pretensions: just poetry.

Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to re...more

Literary Prizes — 165 members — last activity 22 hours, 22 min ago
A place to discuss the Booker, the Pulitzer, the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Newbery, and/or any other literary awards.

READING AS WRITERS — 373 members — last activity 6 days ago, 02:47PM
Those lines that startle you, endings that follow you for days, maybe a style that disturbs you but you can't stop reading. Discuss it all here.

Authors Society — 394 members — last activity 3 hours, 12 min ago
This group is for writers to plug their books.
It is also for readers who are searching for new books to read.
Come join us!

The Canongate Books Advance Review Club — 58 members — last activity 12 days ago, 08:51AM
An informal group where Canongate Books posts information about early review copies available to Goodreads members. Our only requirement is that you l...more

The Cusp of Something discussion group — 20 members — last activity 01/30/2008 03:32PM
set up to hopefully discuss Jai Clare's collection The cusp of Something when people have had a chance to read it!

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest — 73 members — last activity 04/12/2008 05:39PM
My unpublished novel, DIG, has been selected as a semifinalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. If you are so inclined, you can post a review ...more

CAT Society — 338 members — last activity 4 days ago, 11:55PM
Who love to LOVE can joy with us. Who love to PLAY can joy with us. Who love to RELAX can joy with us. Who love our IDEA can joy with us.
..............more

see all of Charles's groups »

Charles's friend comments

showing 1-7 of 7. (add a comment | view all)

from Jeannie

19 days ago, 12:02PM

Thanks Charles for adding me as a friend. I'd love for you to visit my web site, jeanniebarber.com. I'm a novice writer so feel free to make any kind of suggestions, ideas or thoughts to correct it. I’m co-authoring a novel with Patty Wiseman, another friend on Goodreads. We’ve known each other for over 30 years. While you're there, please sign the guestbook, too! There’s also a link to our book you can click on…clairkelley@synthasite.com. This site is brand new and in the editing stage as is our story. Please visit it as well. We’re both very green, but we’ve met so many people on this site willing to reach out and offer advice or a guiding hand.
Blessings,
Jeannie

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from Sarah

28 days ago, 10:10AM

Thank you for the friendship, have a wonderful week.

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from Abailart

09/11/2008 07:16AM

Thanks for friend request. Intend doing a full review of Sea Stories when have read it all. So glad you like George Mackay Brown! Winter Tales just about right to revisit - along with Something Rich and Strange!

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from Jason

06/13/2008 08:57AM

Thank you for taking the time to read "Don't Share A Cab in Peru". That you enjoyed it means a lot. Hopefully someone picks up the next piece, and the next.
(I've got a long way to go before I'll have enough for a collection.)

Cheers,
Jason

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from Cissy

03/15/2008 05:38AM

Thanks for the add, Charles!! I'm looking forward to reading your books, especially The Sea Stories, as I love the sea.

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from Charles

03/11/2008 01:06AM

Thanks, Jessica. I hope you like it!

Charles

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from Jessica

03/10/2008 03:05PM

Congratulations on your book's debut Charles!
I'll be sure to check it out--
Jessica.

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