false 88815 25 Mohsin Hamid's first novel, <i>Moth Smoke</i>, dealt with the confluence of personal and political themes, and his second, <i>The Reluctant Fundamentalist</i>, 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 <i>smiled</i>. 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. <i>--Valerie Ryan</i> Set in modern-day Pakistan, Mohsin Hamid's debut novel, <i>Moth Smoke</i>, went on to win awards and was listed as a <i>New York Times</i> Notable Book of the Year. His bold new novel, <i>The Reluctant Fundamentalist</i>, 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. 725380 book 2 4 2007 The Reluctant Fundamentalist total:3932|5:625|4:1515|3:1271|2:407|1:114| 3932 13926 5423 1036 3 12 false false Fri Feb 01 05:47:08 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 05:47:49 -0800 2008
Lately, there has been a flowering of...more...]]> 4 7 false false Sat Jun 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 08 22:37:51 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 08 22:43:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 8 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 28 10:16:57 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 28 22:00:54 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 6 false false Fri Jul 13 04:29:14 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 13 04:29:14 -0700 2007
Because it’s short, yet evocative: a relief at a time when authors needlessly pile on the pages.

Because it’s hard enough to sustain a distinctive voice for a dramatic monologue in a poem (ask Robert Browning), leave alone an entire novel.
...more...]]> 3 7 false false Tue Jun 17 11:34:34 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 17 12:32:38 -0700 2008
These are the most confuseing ideas for the ...more...]]> 2 4 false false Thu May 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 24 11:00:59 -0700 2008 Thu May 08 15:22:10 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 6 false false Mon Apr 30 07:34:48 -0700 2007 Fri May 11 06:45:16 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 5 false false Mon Jul 30 01:37:23 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 30 19:00:32 -0700 2008 What happened to the brilliant author of Moth Smoke?

This book with his narrator's monologue looks like an attempt to simplify both: literature and points of view.

Even irony seems put here and there without a logic.
And the effect of al...more...]]> 2 3 false false Fri Apr 10 17:06:50 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 19:41:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 3 false true Mon Sep 15 22:35:01 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 29 23:43:55 -0700 2008
The structure of this is tale is Changez telling his personal story to a burly American visitor (probably a spook of some sort) to his country, in his function as a guide to Pakistan. The tone was very reminiscent of Rudyard Kipl...more...]]> 5 4 false false Fri Sep 12 11:19:06 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 11 06:24:02 -0700 2008 Wed Dec 03 08:34:21 -0800 2008
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 never know whether I’d have spotted the all...more...]]> 3 3 false false Fri Jul 18 14:51:50 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 14:52:54 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false true Wed Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 00:43:35 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 10:42:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Thu Nov 08 06:33:24 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 10 08:14:43 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 3 false false Thu Aug 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 13:41:14 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 15 16:09:33 -0700 2008
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 me...more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Apr 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 17 10:45:01 -0700 2008 Thu May 08 11:20:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Feb 16 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 16 15:44:46 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 16 15:46:16 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Dec 06 08:52:46 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 06 17:23:22 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 06 16:11:48 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 16:19:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Jan 28 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 11:28:15 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 15:23:33 -0800 2009
Written in a one sided conversationalist tone, Hamid pulls us into the story of Changez and grabs our attention from the first sentence.
A 21 year old Princeton graduate, lands his first, major jo...more...]]>