The Reluctant Fundamentalist
by Mohsin Hamid
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Book Reviews of The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Book Review: Confusing and unsatisfying
Summary: 3 Stars
First of all, I liked the style of this book, and the references to Lahore and New York, and the way the narrator tells the story in some sort of 'you'-perspective. Also it was interesting to hear of the changes in attitude in New York after 9/11 (I also sort of recognised it, in that when I was with my family on Miami Airport for two hours before we went on to some tiny island, my grandfather -who has a moustache and a skin colour that make him look a bit middle eastern- was controlled a lot more at the security point then the rest of us).
But half way, the story becomes rather confusing. I mean, I could sort of follow the fact that Changez smiled at 9/11 (because I can imagine that to anyone from a coutnry that's feeling rather powerless, it would not -at elast not only- be the deaths of many many people, but simply an attack to the most powerful country in the world, and I can imagine that there are quite some people that resent very powerful countries -especially if they also have big armies and nuclear weapons- and thus, sort of enjoy it when that country gets attacked by something, especially if it's something it can't blast a way in a few days) and although I was very much against it, could also stil get the way he treated Erica.
But what I did not understand, was that when he felt so lost, he did not either quit his job just right away, nor just quit whining and did his job. I mean, I do not understand why he has to dupe his company so much, and why he betrays everyone like that, or even why he returns. Also, he jumped to a lot of conclusions rather fast, without explaining how he got to those, and that made me realise that although he (the narrator) had told me a lot about his life, I nevertheless did not know or understand him at all, and what I did get to know of him, I did not like (even though in the beginning, I had been inclined to like him because of the beautiful English). I think the book would have been better if the author had actually given us a main character with a personality, instead of this boring, rather bleak character who just follows along his own voice and whatever the author had in mind at the moment.
Also, I feel like the author started this book with a plan of what he wanted to tell people, then as he went on to write the story, started to like it and went a wholly different way, and then half-way realised he was getting away from his goal, and thus suddenly made a lot of forced changes happen.
Lastly, I did not understand the ending at all (and at least to me it certainly wasn't 'painfully clear' as the back of the book stated): who is really hunting who? Is the American, who is obviously having a gun, someone who has been sent to capture Chavez, or is it that Chavez and the waiter and so are after the American? Or is it something entirely else? I have no clue to this at all, and I find that very unsatisfying, because when I read a book I'd like to a, understand it when I'm finished and b, for it to have ended by the time I've reached the end.
In short, a beautifully written, but confusing and unsatisfying book.
Book Review: A thriller with intelligence, this book will surprise you.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an outstanding, creatively imagined story which manages to give many of us non-Islamic folks a glimpse into what being Islamic in the U.S. must have been like after 9/11.
The story takes place in Pakistan (Lahore) as Changez, once a successful immigrant in the U.S., relates his story to an unnamed American. From a privileged, but poor family, Changez manages to get into Princeton and graduate with honors. He lands a highly sought after and highly paid position with a New York "valuation" firm which tells companies what they are worth. He loves New York, falls in love with an American woman, and has more money than he ever anticipated.
But after Sept. 11Changez not only finds himself being viewed differently, but begins to view himself differently as well. He suddenly decides to grow a beard which draws even more attention to himself and begins to question his role in the U.S. In the meantime, his relationship with the woman he loves changes for reasons not related to Sept. 11, but also makes him question some essential questions.
While the unnamed and unheard American in the cafe could be a mere foil, Hamid manages to create an interesting character we know only through the eyes of Changez. The American's own visit to Pakistan is questionable and Changez works hard to assure the man of his safety. By the end of the novel you are surprised to find yourself in a page-turning, suspense-filled plot (and I'm not giving away any endings).
Hamid's narrative is tight and well controlled. At times I questioned the strange romantic relationship, but at the end of the novel we see that it serves to show us another side of the U.S. and Changez's relationship to it. It also teaches about Changez as a person, although we can see how he may appear distant to others. His work at the "valuation" firm is a high stakes position in which his answers determine the fate of others. When this begins to bother him he is encouraged to separate himself from the results since anyone could produce them -- it is nothing personal and he does not make the decisions. But Changez recognizes his role in the process.
It is this role which we build out upon as Changez begins to see the role he plays in other areas of his life. What he recognizes is that passivity is not an option. To use the existentialist formula, "not to choose is to choose." In other words, he moves from passivity to action which seems to surprise many, including himself. But is he really changing or simply becoming for himself? That is up to the reader to decide.
Regardless of the answer, Hamid's book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand more of what is happening in the world today. There are no simple answers, but there is insight.
Book Review: Don't get mired on the surface
Summary: 4 Stars
What I liked about this book goes beyond the concrete issues everyone seems to belabor, like the war and the stereotypes of America that Changez constantly refers to. I love the book's (or Hamid's) ideas that transcend these, like the notion of nostalgia, or the analogy of a power having such force that we might, under its wings, turn against our roots. Exeriences like these come in all shapes and levels of complexity, and many of us have had them, whether we know it or not. I also found Hamid's style compelling (although the monologue sometimes felt like a cop-out; I've never been a fan of the second person narration, no matter who the 2nd person is, reader or otherwise). His directness reminded me of Coehlo's in The Alchemist, where the analysis is spelled out in such a way that the reader might not have to think; but, really, we DO think. In fact, the spelling out provokes us to contemplate beyond the page or the story, to a more personal and richer analysis. Changez states clearly that Erica suffered from nostalgia and that he, too, suffers from the same affliction. Juxtapose those feelings with his company's focus on fundamentals. What a great discussion! How does nostalgia inform our present condition? How dangerous is it? How healthy? All sorts of provocative questions and discussions can derive from the simple foundation Hamid lays out for us.
Also, Changez's very sudden change of heart about America and about his homeland is revealed clearly and, for some readers, unrealistically. Changez even comments on his surprise that it took so long for him to get to such a powerful point of perspective. The story line takes us on that same long journey, and just as abruptly as he is, the reader is seized by this change of heart. The mystification in which Changez was paralyzed was created by a greater force that, on realization, was suddenly so obvious to him. It does not matter if his transformation (or change) is realistic or not - what matters is what we, as readers, do with it.
I am curious about a previous reviewer's comment that the story flows and is fun to read (I agree), but that the BOOK is not to be praised as much as the author. I don't agree, but I see the point. Some other, less sophisticated comments suggest that it was a wasteful read, especially after discovering Hamid's purpose for writing. That's sad: good books and good readers need not have the author's personal history or intention in mind to fully embrace an opinion, an analysis, or a likeness of a story, even a National Bestseller.
Book Review: "How did I know you were an American?"
Summary: 4 Stars
One of the unsettling things about Hamid's tense, terse novel is the quiet manner in which its elements--the deliberately provocative nature of its title, the manner of its telling, the ambiguous motivations of its characters--challenge the reader's own presuppositions. "You should not imagine that we Pakistanis are all potential terrorists," its narrator chides, even as he coyly hints that his intellectual and emotional rebellion against the United States may have more menacing ramifications. Does fundamentalism refer to his Islamic heritage or to the "fundamentals" of Western-style capitalism? Was he reluctant to return to his native country, or was he a reluctant ingenue of American business? Who is more dangerous, this Pakistani narrator recounting the story of his Princeton schooling and his rise and fall at an American firm, or the quiet American listener, whose presence in the cafe in Lahore may be more than mere happenstance?
Changez, the young man whose monologue recounts his American adventure, had it all: graduating at the top of his class, snapped up by a prestigious firm, and thrilled by his relationship with Erica, an attractive Manhattan socialite. He adopts the professionalism--and, more hesitantly, the arrogance--of his colleagues, but underneath his facade is a "sort of Third World sensibility." Then, 9/11 changes Changez, who in turns notices changes (both real and perceived) in the attitudes of Americans towards immigrants like himself. Even a two-week-old beard ("perhaps, a form of protest on my part") becomes a matter for mutual hostility and suspicion. The deterioration of Changez's relationship with his adopted country parallels the worsening emotional state of his girlfriend: While America reverts to an insular longing for a past grandness, Erica retreats into her undiminished love for a dead man, her former boyfriend.
The America/Erica equivalence is, perhaps, too unsubtle; it's an instance of heavy-handedness in a mostly understated novel calculated to explore, but not explain, the world's love-hate relationship with the U.S. One of America's biggest faults, as Hamid would have it, is the retreat "into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your own superiority." The story of its narrator, himself a man torn between two cultures (and hardly a paragon of faultlessness), forces us to rethink those myths and assumptions.
Book Review: The Nationality Game
Summary: 2 Stars
With polished prose and clever style, a winner by the norms of contemporary fiction, Hamid strives for and may attain empathy for his narrator, Changez. The narrative is a not quite disclosed scheme against an unnamed narratee (a clumsy, insensitive American in Pakistan) as well as the reader, also addressed by Changez. I contend the author is himself trapped by doing so well at conventional literary skills in the maintained tone and style, covering over assumptions that could be questioned a bit.
Changez can be witty, warm-hearted, sardonic in his observations, his flashbacks to sojourns in a premier American university and profession, his descriptions of Lahore's local foods and people. As narrator, he's meant to spellbind both the narratee and reader, gain our understanding and empathy as he recounts crises of identity (even putting on a false identity during sex). From America, he eventually returned to Pakistan where he somehow underwent de-corruption and redemption (though this may come after whatever he does to the narratee). The novel means to dramatize the cultural and political polarities of the Pakistani and the unnamed man he talks to, who represents cultural and (possibly) military American imperialism, though it's a one-sided game.
The reader (if not the dumb narratee) need not be so spellbound. Breaking the narrative triangle, the reader may question Changez's prevailing nationalism and resentments. I didn't buy the tragic tone of Changez's prior displaced identity, his righteousness and superior self-possession. Not too far beneath the smooth surface, the narrative and narrator show a fundamentalist spirit, at its most brutal when Changez relishes the sight of slaughter of innocent people on 9/11. A more daring fiction maybe would have reversed roles: have Changez invited into the home or other context of an American who'd been murdered in the WTC that day.
I'd have liked to see some humor about Changez's plights with his rich employer and girlfriend. I'd have liked some challenge to the assumption that Pakistan is simply the victim of India, the USA, etc.
The book fits nicely into contemporary expectations for fiction. The movie version would be rated R. It would have handsome young actors, be shot in actual or authentic looking countries of origin.