The Reluctant Fundamentalist

by Mohsin Hamid

book data

3,386 ratings, 3.56 average rating, 929 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		16%
4		39%
3		31%
2		10%
1		2%

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published

April 2nd 2007 by Harcourt

binding

Hardcover, 192 pages

characters

Changez, Erica

isbn

0151013047 (isbn13: 9780151013043)

description

Mohsin Hamid's first novel, Moth Smoke, dealt with the confluence of personal and political themes, and his second, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, revi...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]

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02/01/08

Sandhya rated it:

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 F...more

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06/08/08

Bookchica rated it:

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 landin...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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12/28/07

Arsalan rated it:

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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07/13/07

Sanjay rated it:

Nine Reasons To Read This One:

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.

Because the voice is just right – formal without being sombre; precise without being stiff.

Because, unlike in John Updike’s Terrorist, you can empathise with and understand Cha...more

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06/17/08

fbuser638786001 rated it:

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 mo...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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04/24/08

JennS rated it:

(review of isbn 0156034026)

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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04/30/07

atiya rated it:

Mohsin Hamid also wrote "Moth Smoke," and that brought me to this book--the flashy title could have been ignored. At first, the way he wrote it seemed charming but quickly turned annoying. The story is about a young Pakistani guy who comes to America, goes to Yale, and earns his way to a highly competitive job as a financial analyst. He is in love with an annoying girl. He assimilates and loves his life in America but his outlook changes after September 11. Unfortunately, Hamid doesn't...more

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07/30/07

Lorenzo rated it:

(review of isbn 0241143659)

bookshelves: 2008-readings, pakistani, tried-to-read-and-gave-up

So far a total disappointment.
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 all these fake attempts to pretend the narrator is really having a conversation with the stereotype of an American businessman in Lahore is really disturbing.

I hope that Hamid is going to su...more

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04/10/09

Megha rated it:

(review of isbn 0156034026)

bookshelves: 1001-books, contemporary, mystery-suspense-thriller, socio-political

'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' is an attempt to give one an idea about what drives youngsters to radical Islamic fundamentalism - a term which has close connotations with political fanaticism, terrorism and anti-americanism. However, Mohsin Hamid has failed miserably. Not only the book was unable to generate a feeling of sympathy and understanding towards the protagonist Changez, it left me pretty convinced that Changez's fundamentalist beliefs are completely un-justified and that he is a hypocr...more 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' is an attempt to give one an idea about what drives youngsters to radical Islamic fundamentalism - a term which has close connotations with political fanaticism, terrorism and anti-americanism. However, Mohsin Hamid has failed miserably. Not only the book was unable to generate a feeling of sympathy and understanding towards the protagonist Changez, it left me pretty convinced that Changez's fundamentalist beliefs are completely un-justified and that he is a hypocrite, prejudiced and a despicable human being.

*** Spoilers ***

Changez, the protagonist, is a young man from Pakistan. Having freshly graduated from Princeton, Changez bags a high-paying job at an American firm. He shows signs of brilliance at work and soon earns the respect of his colleagues. It is also at this high point of his life, that he falls in love with Erica. However, things don't stay that way for long. 9/11 proves to be a turning point in his life. After 9/11 his American Dream falls apart and he abandons America to return to Pakistan. It is also around this time that any hopes of his striking up a relationship with Erica practically die.

Unfortunately the story fails in addressing the real issue. No answers are offered to justify Changez's transition from a successful young man to an anti-American revolutionary. More than half the narrative is devoted to his love story which has nothing fresh to offer and is very shallow. On one hand, Changez tries almost too hard to make us believe that he really cares for Erica. On the other, he pretends to be Erica's dead ex-boyfriend, to make her sleep with him. So digusting!
The symbolism - Changez's love-affair with (am)Erica - is way too straight and unsubtle to have any real impact.

The moment where I hated Changez the most was when he watches the news of 9/11 attacks on television and he smiles.
"I stared as one—and then the other—of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center collapsed. And then 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."

Forgetting that this is the country that offered him an ivy-league education and a highly coveted job and more importantly, looking past the fact that a number of people died in the attacks, he is able to take pleasure in the misfortune of America. As if this doesn't speak volumes of his deeply rooted prejudice against America, the rest of the narrative tries to tell us how post-9/11 events changed his views about America and its role in world politics, thus cultivating in him a hatred and rage towards America. What events cause this change, we are never told. There is a constant mention of his inner struggle, but we never get a glimpse of his emotions. I am gonna need more convincing than Changez thinks that his colleagues are hostile towards him because he is sporting a beard, a symbol of him belonging to Pakistan. Dude! how about it is a professional place and you are expected to look presentable when dealing with business clients? He can't blame America if the American girl he is chasing doesn't love him back or if he loses interest in his job forcing his American employers to fire him.

To narrate this dull and uninteresting story, Mohsin Hamid has used a writing style where the narrator doesn't talk directly to the reader. Changez is telling this story to an American stranger visiting Pakistan, but we hear only one side of the conversation. The technique gets boring and awkward and repeatedly uses sentences like "You are not hungry and you desire me to continue, you say?" . The language, for the most part, is more befitting for a written form rather than a conversation.
One idea I liked was how we are given hints about developing tension between the narrator and the American he is talking to as the conversation goes on. The books has an ambiguous ending leaving us with a sense of danger lurking around the corner. The idea isn't that well executed though. Neither of the possible endings sound too plausible, considering how real-wordly this book is supposed to be.(less)

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09/15/08

Will rated it:

bookshelves: terrorism

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

This is a lovely, short, very easy-to-read post 9/11 book.

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 Kipling, at least as far as I recall from my reading of Kipling many years back. Think The Man Who Would Be King. This makes sense given the subject matter of the book, colonialism versus the third world....more This is a lovely, short, very easy-to-read post 9/11 book.

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 Kipling, at least as far as I recall from my reading of Kipling many years back. Think The Man Who Would Be King. This makes sense given the subject matter of the book, colonialism versus the third world.

Changez, born to fading gentry in Pakistan, has attended Princeton on scholarship, gotten a lucrative job with a top tier financial company, and is in love with beautiful, blond upper-class Yank. Life is good. But when 9/11 happens he discovers that he feels some satisfaction in the great giant being taken down a notch. In the newly paranoid USA, his background marks him as a threat to many and life changes.

Essentially what we have here is a foreigner (Changez) falling in love with America (get it? amERICA), but his amERICA is too damaged by the premature loss of her boyfriend to cancer at age 22 (Read Vietnam or whatever other fall one might choose) to cope. The result of this is that amERICA suffers from extreme nostalgia and becomes incapable of truly embracing Changez (subtle).

Erica’s father irks him with presumptions about corruption in Pakistan. He sees a “typically American undercurrent of condescension” (p 55) American indifference to third world concerns is noted repeatedly here. It is no secret that the USA is notoriously unempathetic to the concerns of others since the Marshall Plan.

Fundamentals here are the tools taught him in his finance career (efficiency). Fundamentals are implied for other things, knowing who you are, what your place is in the world. There are, surprisingly, no overt connections made to religious fundamentalism. Presumably one of the author’s points is that the values held high in the west (efficiency uber alles) are just as unfeeling and extreme as those of the religious nuts.

I did not take this as a personal tale. It is a metaphoric one. I mean the main character has but a single name, Changez. For that alone, how could the book be anything other than metaphorical? So I was not troubled by the contradictions in the character. For example, Changez feels an affinity with the jeepney driver in the Philippines, yet the choices he makes are all to strive within the western world. He manages to get a scholarship to attend Princeton, but feels it necessary to hide his relative poverty. What? Are there no other scholarship kids at Princeton? He is elitist in his orientation, wanting to hang with the rich kids, wanting to work for the heavy hitter financial company, even after it becomes clear to him that the work will cost people their livelihoods, wanting to be with the crazy girl when it is clear that she is over the edge. It is not America that rejects the foreigner here, but the foreigner who rejects America. So it is not a personal tale. It is a metaphoric one. It would have been better had the walking symbols here been made more reasonable, had their desires and impulses been a little more grounded in flesh and blood reality.

You’re not a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
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09/11/08

Beth(MN) rated it:

(review of isbn 0156034026)

bookshelves: 1001-books, 2008, 9-11-reference, literary-fiction, thriller

Read in September, 2008

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 never know whether I’d have spotted the allegorical content of this book on my own had I not been tipped off to it thanks to some internet searches or not. It’s pretty blatant so I like to think I’d have caught on in my own time but I’m...more

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07/18/08

Daniel rated it:

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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07/01/08

Ramberto rated it:

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 co...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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11/08/07

Khaya rated it:

bookshelves: culturalidentity, southasia, 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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08/05/08

Zach rated it:

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 h...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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04/17/08

Bibliomantic rated it:

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

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02/16/08

Gunjan rated it:

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 ...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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12/06/08

Janice rated it:

I read this book while recovering from surgery. When I saw it at the bookstore, it seemed to jump out at me. I think I read it in about 3 days. It details the life of a muslim Pakistani immigrant living in NYC. Changez is Princeton educated and working for a prestigious evaluation firm, he is literally living the 'American Dream'. All that changes for him after 9/11. Because he is Muslim and looks like 'one of them' he is regarded differently now. Where does he belong? He struggles with ...more

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04/06/09

James rated it:

bookshelves: important, social-critique

Read in October, 2008

This brief first-person narrative breaks so many conventions of the novel that you might toss it out just a few pages in. Have patience, I pray you, for you will discover that the odd narrative pace and familiar-yet-tense prose are masterful devices used to create a completely unique tale that ends with a bang.

The story is recounted as if it is a chance encounter between a suspicious-looking American abroad and a young Pakistani in his native land. Yet as the Pakistani narrator revea...more

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01/27/09

Lori rated it:

bookshelves: fiction

Read in January, 2009

I sat down with this book today and read it from cover to cover in less than 5 hours.

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 job with a very important NY based employer. With 9-11 as the backdrop, we follow him as he turns from a confident, aggressive young man, to one that is questioning the world around him, and suffering f...more

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polls

Which book would you like to read in July?

We will read the top two books with the highest number of votes. Polls will be open through Sunday, June 21.

Sea Change

2 votes, 33.3%

The Mysterious Benedict Society

3 votes, 50.0%

The Robber Bridegroom

0 votes, 0.0%

Fairest

0 votes, 0.0%

The Wind in the Willows

1 vote, 16.7%

The Secret Garden

0 votes, 0.0%