Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

[Neil]

I think Britta (my autocorrect just renamed you Brittany!) and I had fundamentally different views on the concept of the doors. Not much chance of a reconciliation!

I haven't read The Reluctant Fundamentalist so I cannot join it with that comparison discussion. However, I found the writing style won me over on this one. I read the Kindle sample and decided I didn't like it, mainly because of the style. Then it was long listed so I gave it a proper go. And I got sucked into it. I don't know how I would have felt if I had read the other one first? Perhaps it is a victim of expectation setting from an earlier novel and I didn't have those expectations.

[Robert]

Style wise The Reluctant Fundamentalist is different. It's more diary-like.

And like most I found it much better than Exit West but I found How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia execrable.

[Hugh]

I have never read How to get Filthy Rich - was deterred by the title alone. I also wonder if I would have liked The Reluctant Fundamentalist as much if I'd read The Fall first!

I am not saying I disliked this book, more that I don't see what is special about it, and I felt that having created the scenario he could have done more to explore its consequences - this is why it ended up the lowest of my longlist rankings. Whether or not it ends up bottom of my shortlist will depend on whether I agree with the consensus on History of Wolves and on how I get on with Auster...

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

I loved this one.

[W]

I didn't like this one,especially the magic realism part.Mohsin Hamid used to be among my favorite writers,not anymore.