The Reluctant Fundamentalist

published	April 2nd 2007 by Harcourt
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0151013047 (isbn13: 9780151013043)
ebook
pages	192
literary awards	2007 Booker Prize Nominee
description	Mohsin Hamid's first novel, Moth Smoke, dealt with the confluence of personal and political themes, and his second, The Reluctant Fundamentalist,...more [close] Mohsin Hamid's first novel, Moth Smoke, dealt with the confluence of personal and political themes, and his second, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, revisits that territory in the person of Changez, a young Pakistani. Told in a single monologue, the narrative never flags. Changez is by turns naive, sinister, unctuous, mildly threatening, overbearing, insulting, angry, resentful, and sad. He tells his story to a nameless, mysterious American who sits across from him at a Lahore cafe. Educated at Princeton, employed by a first-rate valuation firm, Changez was living the American dream, earning more money than he thought possible, caught up in the New York social scene and in love with a beautiful, wealthy, damaged girl. The romance is negligible; Erica is emotionally unavailable, endlessly grieving the death of her lifelong friend and boyfriend, Chris. Changez is in Manila on 9/11 and sees the towers come down on TV. He tells the American, "...I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased... I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees..." When he returns to New York, there is a palpable change in attitudes toward him, starting right at immigration. His name and his face render him suspect. Ongoing trouble between Pakistan and India urge Changez to return home for a visit, despite his parents' advice to stay where he is. While there, he realizes that he has changed in a way that shames him. "I was struck at first by how shabby our house appeared... I was saddened to find it in such a state... This was where I came from... and it smacked of lowliness." He exorcises that feeling and once again appreciates his home for its "unmistakable personality and idiosyncratic charm." While at home, he lets his beard grow. Advised to shave it, even by his mother, he refuses. It will be his line in the sand, his statement about who he is. His company sends him to Chile for another business valuation; his mind filled with the troubles in Pakistan and the U.S. involvement with India that keeps the pressure on. His work and the money he earns have been overtaken by resentment of the United States and all it stands for. Hamid's prose is filled with insight, subtly delivered: "I felt my age: an almost childlike twenty-two, rather than that permanent middle-age that attaches itself to the man who lives alone and supports himself by wearing a suit in a city not of his birth." In telling of the janissaries, Christian boys captured by Ottomans and trained to be soldiers in the Muslim Army, his Chilean host tells him: "The janissaries were always taken in childhood. It would have been far more difficult to devote themselves to their adopted empire, you see, if they had memories they could not forget." Changez cannot forget, and Hamid makes the reader understand that--and all that follows. --Valerie Ryan Set in modern-day Pakistan, Mohsin Hamid's debut novel, Moth Smoke, went on to win awards and was listed as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His bold new novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, is a daring, fast-paced monologue of a young Pakistani man telling his life story to a mysterious American stranger. It's a controversial look at the dark side of the American Dream, exploring the aftermath of 9/11, international unease, and the dangerous pull of nostalgia. [close]
date added	02-10-07 edit book

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Daniel rated it:

07/18/08

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 c...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.

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Sandy rated it:

02/01/08

I've been trying to read some good Pakistani writing in English for a while now. And I'm glad I made an introduction with Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, who earlier wrote Moth Smoke, a novel, which Rahul Bose is now adapting into a film.

Lately, there has been a flowering of young Pakistani writers like Hamid and Kamila Shamsie (Cartography, Salt And Saffron), and in many ways, this is the first literary stirring that the country is witnessing.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist lo...more

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Charles rated it:

06/17/08

The Reluctant Fundmentalist is a good read if a sad story of loss.However, for all the knowledge the author most surely has, he could perhaps shed more light on the internal motivation of his main charater and the root of his driving loyalties.

These are the most confuseing ideas for the western mind to grasp when thinking about the middle east: loyalty and motivation. Rather then use a long and seemingly eliteist westernized educated rambling to highlight these points that confuse most ameri...more The Reluctant Fundmentalist is a good read if a sad story of loss.However, for all the knowledge the author most surely has, he could perhaps shed more light on the internal motivation of his main charater and the root of his driving loyalties.

These are the most confuseing ideas for the western mind to grasp when thinking about the middle east: loyalty and motivation. Rather then use a long and seemingly eliteist westernized educated rambling to highlight these points that confuse most americans (including those of us with some hands on experiance of the region).

Rather it is as if our main charater simply tells all excpet that which we most crave hearing, surely Changez is smart enough to know how his ecounter with the jumpy clean-cut american will end. It is all foreshadowed from the very first chapter. Thus why not expound on his loyalties and motivations?

We learn many details of his four years spent in America (which Changez comes to see as a sort of treachery of his roots, I for one would like to know why, but Hamid doesn't seem to think it needs explaining). This left me with an empty feeling when I finished the book.

Rather then explain the "reluctance" we come to see a wonderful story of an overworked twenty something with a bright future who simply breaks down in the face of real life, something that perhaps more often then not in competetive enviroments. This part of the story is well written and engrossing on its own, yet at every turn when a shadow or hit could perhaps be offered; enticing more thought of the deeper and inherently more conflicted tides within Changez's charater, we are left wanting. We know there is a battle raging inside of Changez we can see it in his actions yet we are only offered the description of his actions (he grows a beard, he becomes sloppy at work, his anger grows and he has a hair trigger.) Surely it would be nice to know what is running though Changez's head as he goes though this metamorphsis. That would be the implied question inside of the title, yet again we are left wanting at the most lucid of moments

To this end I found this book frustrating, I am deeply confused myself as to how those in middle eastern counties identify with their religions, their tribes, and their states (I am a service member, currently serving) and I am aware that it is diffrent in every country. And given my honestly rather limited experiance I feel that The Reluctant Fundamentalist falls short of explaining this concept to the western mind. (when I picked the book up at the PX I was looking for that very answer, I was left with more of the typical confusion when I had finished.

I though the reading, looked for reasons why Changez "was the reluctant fundmentalist." Rather then find this instead I found that it seemed like an exceptionally talented and bright if somewhat confused twenty-two year old having a very traditional crisis upon entering a highly charged working world. I was left with no other reason that he "became fundmetalist" other then the fact he was Pakistani. It rang empty to my wanting ears and perhaps more dangerously it promotes a sterotyped view of those from the entire middle eastern region (supplied perhaps by the "Ugly Americans" reading audience, who don't know enough about the region or its people as it were to think in anything more then superficial sterotype). Indeed it was my motivation for purchaseing the book, I wished to get a more personalized down to earth perspective on the entire conflict, I was dissapointed. What values derived from Pakistan made Changez question his loyalty to his job?

Perhaps during the shock of nine-eleven when the book is set such unexplained actions make sense and indeed I do not question the books feelings. But the book stands to offer so much more: more about deeper motivations and explinations behind those feelings, more about tradional values colliding with the west. I found the work not fully explaining its title. Where was that internal struggle that made Changez "reluctant"? It seems Changez was rather swayed by traditional words of wisdom, but they were from a man in South America, what paralell does this draw to his own culture? I was agian confused and left without explination. Thus The Reluctant fundamentalist rather then offering me a clear glimpse into the hatred that seems to directed towards my country I was left just as confused as when I started to read it in the first place. I suppose I expected too much from the book, for it is still an excellent story. ...less

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Bookchica rated it:

06/08/08

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: all

On a flight back to US from India, about half an hour was left to land in San Francisco, everyone was asleep, when we heard the captain speaking over the intercom. All I heard was something about how we were about to land in Japan. In my sleepy state I assumed that something was wrong with the plane and was about to panic when my husband told me the rest of the captain's message. Apparently we were denied entry into United States because a passenger was on their no-fly list.

On landing in Jap...more On a flight back to US from India, about half an hour was left to land in San Francisco, everyone was asleep, when we heard the captain speaking over the intercom. All I heard was something about how we were about to land in Japan. In my sleepy state I assumed that something was wrong with the plane and was about to panic when my husband told me the rest of the captain's message. Apparently we were denied entry into United States because a passenger was on their no-fly list.

On landing in Japan, as we all emptied the plane, I saw a family of about 6 - a young boy, bearded, about 20, and women of different ages wearing burkha's - sitting quietly in the center seats not meeting anyones eyes. I remarked to my husband about how horrid they must be feeling, that just because they are Muslims they must have shown up on the security radar for US. Once the aircraft had been emptied out, the family was brought out with about 10 men surrounding them and taken away. We boarded the plane again and went on our way. Once there, we told our friends about our "adventure" and had discussions about racial profiling, heard stories from others about how they had been subjected to profiling. Pro's and con's of racial profiling, US government, security, prejudice, patriotism, terrorism.. I'm sure you can all imagine what was discussed and debated. I remember sympathizing with the family on the plane.

About a week later, I read that the young boy had later been sent to US and arrested on arrival. Allegedly he had gone to Pakistan and had taken part in a terrorist camp. I did not follow the case since then.

Those of you who are still reading this post, thanks :). Throughout the book, as I heard Changez (the young Pakistani protagonist) talk about his life in America, I followed him on all the various issues he tackles in the book. Be it his social identity, his professional acceptance, America's fair treatment to him and his achievements. But as I finished the book, my thoughts forked out to this incident.
I don't know what happened to the boy in the plane. How accurate were the accusations? Did he or why did he join a camp and many questions that went through my mind. Many that would remain unanswered. I did wish Mohsin Hamid had ended the book on a definite note, but then that would have made it more fictional than real in account.

This extremely fluid, unapologetic, frank, point of view had me hooked from page 1. Changez a young muslim, confident, achiever, confused, looking for acceptance, searching for identity, guilty of abandoning family, trying to define his patriotism, enjoying the fruits of his labor - all his layers come through with such clarity. I really enjoyed the narrative style. It flowed naturally. It felt like you were right there listening in on an actual conversation.

Mohsin Hamid has not held back Changez's thoughts to be politically correct, or tried to portray Changez as a victim. The Reluctant Fundamentalist is an honest, at times appealing and at times disconcerting, account of a man's internal thoughts, who knows that he may be a few feet away from death and has nothing to lose by telling all.

For more reviews, go to http://ireadokay.blogspot.com ...less

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Zach rated it:

08/15/08

bookshelves: 2008-books, b--club--fiction

Read in August, 2008

Overall this book is only soo disappointing in that the first half showed such promise and the second half failed to live up to it.

First half of this book was excellent. The author starts with an interesting device, the narrator, a Pakistani educated in the US now living in Pakistan meeting with some unnamed American--possibly from the government. The stroy is told as a one sided conversation with the narrator occasionally responding to the American (someone else described it as hearing o...more Overall this book is only soo disappointing in that the first half showed such promise and the second half failed to live up to it.

First half of this book was excellent. The author starts with an interesting device, the narrator, a Pakistani educated in the US now living in Pakistan meeting with some unnamed American--possibly from the government. The stroy is told as a one sided conversation with the narrator occasionally responding to the American (someone else described it as hearing one side of a phone call--which is a pretty accurate description). The narrator is clearly a well thought out character and the story has a subtle, but definet tension--the reader knows something happened to turn the narrator from a US educated/NYC consultant into whatever he is now (we do not know, nor do we know why he is meeting with the American)--The story appears to build as the narrator describes his rise in an NYC consulting firm as well as burgeoning relationship with a wealthy American--The action rises toward of course the inevitbale 9/11---

and then the book completely disappoints. The narrator seemed so well thoughtout that I thought I was in for a really well developed, psychological biography that shows how a Muslim who wanted to enter into the US society, decides to abandon it--How does he react to 9/11? How does he reconcile his own life/goals with a system that he grows to hate? --NOTHING!! We are told he was amused by the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon--this might seem plausible from someone who feels they have suffered because of the US and grown to hate it, but it makes no sense why someone who is working on Wall St. would have this initial reaction...Other than one or two incidents of racial harassment, which appear to be just thrown in, there is no description as to how the narrator continues to interact with his co-workers and his American friends in response to the attacks. The narrator has some comments about global politics, the US role, especially in South Asia, but these sections seem again very quick, almost after thoughts, compared to the more complex/nuance that was given to the novel's earlier descriptions of characters. The second half of the novel appears to be devoted mostly to a love story, which is very distracting from the rest of the novel because the narrator in the love story could have been a completely different character. He is in love with a wealthy American (white) woman, who was born into the highest level of privilege--YET the author does not address how this radical feels about her privilege or how he might have a future with her--would he give up Islam? expect her to convert? --not addressed.

Overall this book is only soo disappointing in that the first half showed such promise and the second half failed to live up to it. ...less

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Khaya rated it:

11/10/07

bookshelves: culturalidentity, southeastasia, thought-provoking

I liked the fact that this book managed to be both a quick and easy read and very thought-provoking at the same time. It was an interesting look at biculturalism, specifically east-west ambivalence. It made me think about some of my America issues, as an Orthodox Jew -- I never realized how American I was until I moved to Israel, and how much pride I take in qualities I have that were clearly influenced by my having grown up in America. At the same time, when I lived in America I always felt ...more I liked the fact that this book managed to be both a quick and easy read and very thought-provoking at the same time. It was an interesting look at biculturalism, specifically east-west ambivalence. It made me think about some of my America issues, as an Orthodox Jew -- I never realized how American I was until I moved to Israel, and how much pride I take in qualities I have that were clearly influenced by my having grown up in America. At the same time, when I lived in America I always felt bicultural because my Orthodox observance and separatism made me feel like I couldn't fully participate in the mainstream culture. I think that that's why I often enjoy literature about American immigrants, first-generation Americans, bicultural characters, etc. (e.g., "The Namesake").

One of the things that bothered me, though, was my difficulty comprehending the main character's reaction to 9/11. Yes, I could see that he disliked American arrogance and the paternalistic attitude/bullying that often manifests in America's involvement in eastern countries. However, here was a guy who had taken advantage of the best America has to offer and was enjoying it -- how could he feel good about an attack on America? Did he feel no gratitude for what America gave him, things he clearly could not enjoy in his own country? I couldn't tell whether this was a flaw in the character or a flaw in the book, but I tend to think it was the latter.

I was also impressed with the writing. There are passages I really wanted to quote; unfortunately, I read this over Shabbos and no longer remember which passages they were.

a friggin sherpa!

the guy writes like a friggin sherpa! from the first you fall into reading the book like a dot! i mean the first sentence --excuse me sir but may i be of assistance? ah, i see i have alarmed you. -- who talks like that but a dot?! i felt like i was talking to dell customer service! and it goes that way for the whole book! lyrical writing my XXXXX! sure its lyrical, if you read it in dot! heres a guy who was shlepping yaks all over the himalayas and ends up at princeton!
you can take the guy out of the cave, but you cant take the cave out of the guy.
a friggin sherpa.

/end husband's rant/...less

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Gunjan rated it:

02/16/08

Read in February, 2008

Fear is so unique an emotion that it has the ability to create a religious zealot, an impassioned soldier, and a dutiful citizen all at once. Quite naturally, we can say that the universal outcome of fear appears to be a sharpened sense of nationalism. From this, we extract feelings of pride, of devotion, and motivation to defend our countries with any means necessary.

Mohsin Hamid gives us a simple and elegant lesson of how fear evolves, in the ever-popular and persistent struggle between ...more Fear is so unique an emotion that it has the ability to create a religious zealot, an impassioned soldier, and a dutiful citizen all at once. Quite naturally, we can say that the universal outcome of fear appears to be a sharpened sense of nationalism. From this, we extract feelings of pride, of devotion, and motivation to defend our countries with any means necessary.

Mohsin Hamid gives us a simple and elegant lesson of how fear evolves, in the ever-popular and persistent struggle between east and west, as both sides attempt to educate the other in precisely the right way to live.

This short, tense novel is also on occasion, blackly humorous. In this passage we see our Pakistani narrator as he “handles” a beggar in his homeland while in conversation with a nameless American man.

“But why do you recoil?” Ah yes, this beggar is a particularly unfortunate fellow. One can only wonder what series of accidents could have left him so thoroughly disfigured. He draws close to you because you are a foreigner. Will you give him something? No? Very wise; one ought not to encourage beggars, and yes, you are right, it is far better to donate to charities that address the causes of poverty rather than to him, a creature who is merely its symptom. What am I doing? I am handing him a few rupees-misguidedly of course, and out of habit. There, he offers us his prayers for our well-being; now he is on his way.” –p.40

I don’t pretend to completely understand Hamid’s protagonist, Changez, because of the Indian-ness of my name or the birthplace of my parents. I do however, understand the frustration felt at watching, at what Hamid describes is the, “sports-event-like coverage given to the mismatch between the American bombers with their twenty-first century weaponry and the ill-equipped and ill-fed opposition, and also knowing that India is among the countries in the East being manipulated as the world slowly considers the consequences of our respective nationalistic desires.

Nearing the end, our author reminds us, “ it seems an obvious thing to say, but you should not imagine that we Pakistanis are all potential terrorists, just as we should not imagine that you Americans are all under-cover assassins.” –p. 183
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Sasha rated it:

09/30/07

Read in October, 2007

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the story of Changez’s new life in America, and its alterations after September 11th, 2001. Changez came from Pakistan to America, never receiving a grade lower than an A in his life, and anxious to experience a rewarding college life at Princeton University. One year, during spring break, he vacations with some fellow students to Greece (a trip he can barely afford), and meets Erica. Changez is instantly intrigues and perplexed by her, as she carelessly sunbath...more The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the story of Changez’s new life in America, and its alterations after September 11th, 2001. Changez came from Pakistan to America, never receiving a grade lower than an A in his life, and anxious to experience a rewarding college life at Princeton University. One year, during spring break, he vacations with some fellow students to Greece (a trip he can barely afford), and meets Erica. Changez is instantly intrigues and perplexed by her, as she carelessly sunbathed topless along the beaches in Greece. Things seemed to be going well for Changez as he graduated top of his class, and started a new career at an evaluation firm in Manhattan. Then as he watched television, he received news of the World Trade Center – and he smiled. From then on, things went downhill: his relationship with Erica declined with her health, and his passion at his job was running very thin (and becoming rather noticeable). Finally Changez realizes that he must reevaluate his life in New York City, and finally come in touch with his true identity.

Despite the consistently mundane and dull plot, The Reluctant Fundamentalist was extremely tedious to read. Author Mohsin Hamid attempts to create his signature writing voice by writing the entire book as a conversation, with the reader only hearing one side. In case you are having trouble picturing this, imagine you hear someone talking on the phone, but cannot hear what the caller is saying. In my opinion, his attempt at this failed. This created a book with little variation, and the lack of dialogue left me bored. This, paired with the uninteresting plot, left me annoyed. Of course, there were a few (yes, I emphasize the word “few”) moments where Changez’s revelations were profound, but it happened so rarely that it was often ignored. Hamid seemed to reiterate Changez’s issues over and over again, which left me unemotional and annoyed with the character. I would not recommend this book to anyone, unless they were extremely bored, there was no other book in the world, or anyone to talk to, or nothing to clean. Overall, I believe that Hamid’s concepts had the possibility of sparking interest, but were not developed enough to catch my attention.
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Arsalan rated it:

12/28/07

Read in December, 2007

I loved Moth Smoke but Hamid falls woefully short of the poetry and inventiveness of his first novel in this hackneyed, boring and utterly forgettable novelette that fails both as a polemical rant against american foreign policy (Rage Against The Machine does a better job and is more believable) and on a more basic human level as a love story. Changez is a pakistani man with western yearnings and trappings, educated at Princeton, and employed by a top american valuation firm when 9/11 occurs. Th...more I loved Moth Smoke but Hamid falls woefully short of the poetry and inventiveness of his first novel in this hackneyed, boring and utterly forgettable novelette that fails both as a polemical rant against american foreign policy (Rage Against The Machine does a better job and is more believable) and on a more basic human level as a love story. Changez is a pakistani man with western yearnings and trappings, educated at Princeton, and employed by a top american valuation firm when 9/11 occurs. The events immediately following 9/11 coupled with his doomed relationship with a depressive and suicidal american girl (oh, the humanity!) spark a crisis of faith in the system he is a part of and in the way American foreign policy runs roughshod over the rest of the world (Boo-fuckin-hoo, cry me a river, etc etc) causing him to give up his western life style, sport a beard in protest regardless of the "looks" he might get walking down the streets of manhattan, and, later on to become a professor in a Pakistani university spewing prosaic anti-american rhetoric. In other words a TRUE revolutionary.

The interests of Hamid's much denounced muslim nation (he identifies with Afghanistan as much as he does with Pakistan) would be much better served had he produced a more self critical novel that would cause the average pakistani or generic third world muslim to introspect and self reflect about why they are such non-entities on the world stage (other than BLAME AMERICA FIRST) and perhaps suggest some way they might be able to pull themselves up by the bootstrap and get out from under the heel of the IMF, the World Bank and the instruments of America's considerable military might. This novel perfectly symbolizes the disease the muslim world suffers from; it's symptoms are apparent in the mindless violence/terrorism we see ever so often erupting from these cultural backwaters but its root cause lies in denial, lack of introspection and refusal to take responsibility for "our" condition actions.

In the end Changez has only himself to blame for his downfall, just like the muslims he identifies with.

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Jason rated it:

09/12/07

Read in September, 2007

(The much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:].)

So, continuing CCLaP's look this month at the 2007 Booker Prize nominees (both short-list and long), today's review is of the blackly humorous The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, which along with Darkmans by Nicola Barker and On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan are definitely the three most commercially popular titles of all the ones chosen this year by ...more (The much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:].)

So, continuing CCLaP's look this month at the 2007 Booker Prize nominees (both short-list and long), today's review is of the blackly humorous The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, which along with Darkmans by Nicola Barker and On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan are definitely the three most commercially popular titles of all the ones chosen this year by the Booker nominating committee. And to tell you the truth, I have a feeling that today's review is going to be shorter than normal, because of the book itself being shorter than most that I review here -- it's barely 180 pages long, with a whole lot of space between each line of text, and with the story itself being more of a "bildungsroman" (that is, a detailed character study) than a traditional three-act plot-based novel.

The central character being examined, in fact, is a young Pakistani male named Changez, who is using a dinner with an American at a cafe in his native Lahore as an excuse to tell us all about his own experiences in America, in the years both immediately preceding and immediately following September 11th. And in fact this is pretty much the entire reason this wisp of a novel even exists, as a character study of Changez himself, and to show how ultimately he doesn't want anything different than any other twentysomething middle-class yearner out there in the world -- a good job, a little savings, a loving spouse, lots of crap to impress the neighbors. A quiet, unabashed nerd while growing up in the Middle East, Changez ends up receiving a scholarship to attend Princeton; while there he becomes the exact overachiever that so many international students do at American universities; this leads him to an entry-level job at financial firm Underwood Sampson & Co., becoming the latest in a long line of employees whose job is to determine the economic value of the various businesses who hire them on for insurance and liquidation purposes.

And, you know, for the most part I just described......less

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Jeff rated it:

10/29/07

bookshelves: public-library

Read in October, 2007

The title and style of the book are both distractions. If an author is going to use the technique, whereas, you the reader are an active participant in the story, the ending should have more of a bang. There is an attempt at this, but it is a meandering attempt.

The protagonist of the story is a Pakastani born student in the United States. He is the top of his class and is recruited by one of the top investment firms as a financial analyst. His job is referred to as a "fundamentalist&qu...more The title and style of the book are both distractions. If an author is going to use the technique, whereas, you the reader are an active participant in the story, the ending should have more of a bang. There is an attempt at this, but it is a meandering attempt.

The protagonist of the story is a Pakastani born student in the United States. He is the top of his class and is recruited by one of the top investment firms as a financial analyst. His job is referred to as a "fundamentalist". He goes into a business and attempts to find its true worth, at times, recommending cutting a business down to its fundamentals. This refers to both his job and eventually his beliefs.

The storyline is very choppy as the main character is telling his story to you, a "tourist" in Pakistan. He approaches you and welcomes you to his country and begins to tell the story of his life. It jumps back and forth from the story into "real time". This is too much of a distraction to pull off and seems unnecessary.

Eventually, he changes her perspective from America as his new "home", to America as the enemy. This is a direct result of the September 11th attacks and the move by the United States to cause problems in Pakistan-Indian relations.

Overall, not a great book, not sure it was on the Booker list. Here are some my favorite quotes though:

"Often, as we stood or sat in the midst of an impeccably turned-out crowd, I would observe that she was utterly detached, lost in a world of her own. her eyes were turned inward, and remarks made by her companions would register only indirectly on her face, like the shadows of clouds gliding across the surface of a lake. She smiled when it was brought to her attention that she seemed distant, and said she was, as usual, spacing out. But had come to suspect that hers were not merely the lapses of the absent-minded; no, she was struggling aginst a current that pulled her within herself, and her smile contained the fear that she might slip into her own depths, where she would be trapped, unable to breath." p 86

"...I knew even then that she was disappearing into a powerful nostalgia, one from which only she could choose whether or not to return." p113

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Anne rated it:

06/18/08

Read in June, 2008

Changez, a Pakistani man, notices an American at a cafe (in Pakistan) and under the guise (or reality?) of hoping to assist the man with his order or other enjoyment of what this strange country has to offer, sits down along-side him and begins a one-sided conversation. The cues and questions from Changez reveal that his companion is not entirely comfortable with the situation, but sits through the ordeal nonetheless. Changez relates his experiences in America - at the top of his class at Prince...more Changez, a Pakistani man, notices an American at a cafe (in Pakistan) and under the guise (or reality?) of hoping to assist the man with his order or other enjoyment of what this strange country has to offer, sits down along-side him and begins a one-sided conversation. The cues and questions from Changez reveal that his companion is not entirely comfortable with the situation, but sits through the ordeal nonetheless. Changez relates his experiences in America - at the top of his class at Princeton and onto a prestigious financial services job. He falls desperately in love with the unattainable and almost ghostly Erica. Then September 11th hits, and Changez finds himself even more the outsider than he's always felt. At first, I wasn't sure if I would like the style of this novel - Changez as a character is very awkward - I immediately didn't trust him - a reaction that perhaps reveals the streotype Hamid is playing on with prejudices and differences. Changez's relationship with Erica is also one-sided. He bends over backwards for a woman who will never be emotionally available to him and will only continue to take from the relationship. In this way, I felt the relationship was a powerful metaphor for Changez's immigrant status in the United States. Ultimately, I found the one-sided conversation very clever, you could feel the impatience and reluctance of the American listener, and I found myself reading faster and faster to overcome the discomfort and figure out where it was all leading. The ending is disturbingly ambiguous - which I usually don't like - but felt Hamid developed masterfully. Hamid truly captures the distrust of many after 9/11 for those who look different (and aren't necessarily even Middle Eastern), while at the same time demonstrating what this treatment does to the people who are being distrusted - and the vicious circle this behavior creates. Very rarely do I find a book where I enjoy both the actual story being told, and an innovative narrative technique. Hamid gave me both - and left me with a lot of things to think about after it was all done. I've had his previous novel Moth Smoke on my shelves for years - and now have great incentive to get to it.
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JennS rated it:

(review of isbn 0156034026)

05/08/08

Read in May, 2008

I think I would have enjoyed this book more had I not found Changez's character to be so predictable and hypocritical. He says "I myself was a form of indentured servant whose right to remain (in the US) was dependent upon the continued benevolence of my employer." Lets see, he gets a free Ivy League education, which is annoying in itself as there are so many American students who fall short of his standards, and the few foreigners (at a US university) seem to be the only students ap...more

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Ramberto rated it:

07/02/08

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Ramberto by: Shawn Sargent

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

…[We:] were not always burdened by debt, dependent on foreign aid and handouts; in the stories we tell of ourselves we were not crazed and destitute radicals…but rather saints and poets and -yes- conquering kings. We built the Royal Mosque and the Shalimar Gardens in this city, and we built the Lahore Fort with its mighty walls and wide ramp for our battle-elephants. And we did these things when your country was still a collection of thirteen small colonies, gnawing away at the edge of a c...more …[We:] were not always burdened by debt, dependent on foreign aid and handouts; in the stories we tell of ourselves we were not crazed and destitute radicals…but rather saints and poets and -yes- conquering kings. We built the Royal Mosque and the Shalimar Gardens in this city, and we built the Lahore Fort with its mighty walls and wide ramp for our battle-elephants. And we did these things when your country was still a collection of thirteen small colonies, gnawing away at the edge of a continent.

This small quote, made near the middle of the book, after Changez has established himself in America as a successful scholar with a bright future, hints at the pride, embarrassment and helpless rage he feels towards his own culture when compared to the dominant west. Changez is not a radical Islamist seeking to usher in a new world order based religious law. Instead he is a lonely patriot pushing back against his country’s stagnation and isolation, doing his part to raise its small stature against a power that he doesn’t see as evil, just not as benevolent.

Tribe becomes an important theme in this story; those cultural obligations you feel to your home, family and nation that give a person a sense of belonging. Changez easily becomes a member of the New York tribe (…I was in four and a half years, never an American; I was immediately a New Yorker), and falls in love with woman that gives him access to the pinnacle of American culture. But against the back drop of the 9-11 attacks he finds it increasingly difficult to give up his Pakistani heritage in favor of an American one, he in essence has to choose his tribe.

This short but enjoyable book offers a window into the mind of an educated, secular Pakistani, who is not a radical fundamentalist. In enjoyed the book for its perspective; without being preachy, it wonders if we are capable of relating to a different culture with respect for its history and its difference, with respect for its tribal connections.
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Carah rated it:

08/20/08

recommended to Carah by: Lossie Book Club

I would never have picked up The Reluctant Fundamentalist of my own accord, so thank you for choosing it. I only got it from the library on Tuesday, and managed to get it all read by this evening. Very fast read, well-written and a compelling storyline. Did anyone else think it ended way too abruptly though? Are you not dying to know what happened with the grim-faced waiter at the hotel? And who was the anonymous American with the suspicious mobile phone and the probably gun in his coat? And wha...more

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Bibliomantic rated it:

05/08/08

Read in April, 2008

Although the ‘ending’ tends to dominate one’s thoughts of the book, it is only one if its many strengths, while simultaneously being its central weakness. I count the endearing narrative of a smart and emotionally mature young man's tale of success followed by failure among the book’s other strengths. That, to me, was something rooted in the central character, in the very way he came across. Other aspects of the novel were, I felt, forced on the reader. For example, the effect of the tit...more