The Reluctant Fundamentalist | 
 enlarge | Author: Mohsin Hamid
Publisher: Harcourt
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  105 reviews
Sales Rank: 38764
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 0151013047
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780151013043
ASIN: 0151013047
Publication Date: April 3, 2007
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Amazon.com
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
A Conversation with Mohsin Hamid
 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. Amazon.com senior editor Brad Thomas Parsons shared an e-mail exchange with Mohsin Hamid to talk about his powerful new book
Read the Amazon.com Interview with Mohsin Hamid
Product Description
At a cafe table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting . . .
Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by the elite "valuation" firm of Underwood Samson. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his infatuation with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore.
But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 100 more reviews...
 Real Connection with Narrator August 20, 2008
A fantastically written book that pulls the reader in emotionally, as if the narrator was a personal aquaintance rather than a fictional character (I found myself wanting to yell "NO!" out loud on more than one occasion). The plot is so real it is still hard for me to believe this is a fictional novel at all.
The entire book is a one-sided conversation between the Pakistani protagonist, Changez, and an American visitor. Changez gives a riveting history of his time in the United States, from his enrollment at Princeton at age 18 to his return to Pakistan at age 22. It is amazing the transformation he goes through in the post-9/11 era. Throughout the novel we also learn of a romance that folds in upon itself.
Overall, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a powerful, emotional read that may just give you a new set of eyes in regard to America's post-9/11 policies.
 what a wonderfully written plot August 7, 2008
The pose is gentle and enticing and you are drawn in like a spider wants you to as you walk unaware into its web. That is how I felt as I was reading the book: tentative and wondering as the plot unfolded. I loved the ending: a journey of life's coincidences and sharp turning points that could so easily change our course forever; or is it forever. A touching love story or was it. very enticing and I am sure each reader will get something different from what I got out of the novel. A lot left to the imagination, but I like that a story teller allows the space for you to create your own scene.
Excellent narrative July 30, 2008
Moshin Hamid writes a fictional narrative of an apparently chance encounter between a Pakistani and an American on a market street in Lahore. From there it builds to an interesting conclusion. I found the perspective of middle-eastern politics since and history from a Pakistani writer's viewpoint refreshing and informative. It is a smooth and fast read that manages to keep the pace moving throughout the book.
 Confusing and unsatisfying July 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Small book that packs a tremendous emotional wallop! July 27, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
It's only 184 pages and a fast read. But don't let the size of this book fool you. It has a tremendous emotional wallop. It pulled me in, turned me inside out and then slammed me down again. It's rare for a book to do that to me.
A bearded Pakistani man, Changez, sits down in a cafe next to an American in Lahore, Pakistan and begins a monologue that lasts throughout the entire book. He speaks about the food and the sights of the city in between telling his tale of his own life in America. Changez was privileged. He graduated from Princeton and then was hired by a prestigious financial consulting firm. He meets an American girl and falls in love. She still longs for a dead boyfriend and we soon see that nostalgia turning into mental instability. Changez is nostalgic too. He misses his homeland and is lives through a tangle of complex emotions when the World Trade Center is attacked on 9/11. His view of his privileged American life starts to change.
The writer is skilled. The voice of Changez is steady and strong. In between telling his life story, there is a meal being served and there will be a sudden switch in the narrative from his life story as he directs his conversation to the American about the meal for a few sentences. Then he will get back to his story, and, even though his words are always sugar coated polite phrases, at times there is an undercurrent of menace which builds slowly to the conclusion.
I must admit that couldn't stand the tension and read the last page early in my reading but it still didn't stop me from keeping my eyes glued to the fast turning pages with my heart racing.
This book is an exceptional piece of writing. Highly recommended.
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