The Reluctant Fundamentalist

At a Bookstore in India Sir, I see that you are checking out this book by Mohsin Hamid I read it a few days back How did I find it you ask Well, it was pretty interesting I found the narration style of the author quite unique I think that alone was reason enough to make it worth Oh, you are getting distracted I see you are eyeing those shining new book covers of The Hunger Games and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo They came out after the movies were released No, I have not seen the movies but it [...]

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 [...]

A real bowl of literary prawn crackers you eat and eat and they taste of nothing, they re entirely synthetic, like a form of extruded plastic, but you can t stop and then you realise the whole bowl is gone and what was that all about This is not a good book and yet it was compelling, I can t deny it, a smooth, snaky insinuating monologue which in retrospect and often in real time spect is a ridiculous tissue of allegory, you ve seen all this in other reviews but it s all horribly true our reluct [...]

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 Fundamentalist looks at the [...]

In one sustained monologue, a young Pakistani named Changez relates his life story to an unidentified American man in a cafe in the city of Lahore Changez, a Princeton graduate who once worked as an analyst for a Manhattan financial firm, tells us how his optimistic view of America began to darken in the aftermath of 9 11 I liked this book for its elegant style and outsider s viewpoint, but my favorite part of it is the mysterious relationship between the narrator and his American listener Tensi [...]

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 Changez, the fundamentalist.Because of the delicious ironies, am [...]

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 f [...]

An Open Letter to Americawhich unfortunately I read late, around 5 years late Why unfortunate B coz I might have liked it or probably loved it since I was a naive reader back then i.e I was into Sheldons and Archers and closer home Bhagats blushes Anyway, I was well aware when this book hit the literary world and took it by storm A dashing title, a Pakistani author, a reluctant subject, a movie in the making by Mira Nair and that s precisely the reason I wanted to read the book before watching t [...]

Onvan The Reluctant Fundamentalist Nevisande Mohsin Hamid ISBN 151013047 ISBN13 9780151013043 Dar 184 Safhe Saal e Chap 2007

An eerie, quietly powerful story The structure is simple enough a monologue A cafe in Lahore, and a young Pakistani is explaining to a silent American how he came to be an enemy of America There s menace there something is about to happen, and soon You re not told why the American is there, or what he does, or quite why young Changez is telling him these things But there it is This voice educated, articulate, tinged with hostility and faux bonhomie and self pity speaking into the dusk, ordering [...]

When my turn came, I said I hoped one day to be the dictator of an Islamic republic with nuclear capability the others appeared shocked, and I was forced to explain that I had been joking It explores, but only manages to scratch the surface, the question of religious fundamentalist amongst contemporary Muslim youth No, it doesn t explore it, but makes a joke out of it, through an artificially constructed dilemma of one Changez, a Pakistani expat in the United States, who has turned to fundamenta [...]

One of the most contentiously rated novels I ve seen hereI d had the book for 2 3 years probably, when, a couple months ago, I determined that I needed to make shelf space This was one of a few books I decided to get rid of, even though it was unread But it was so short, and I had looked forward to reading it So I put it beside books I was reading and would soon read, then picked it up a few nights ago when I was tired but didn t feel like going to bed, and started reading I m very glad I did.As [...]

Wow This is everything I want in a novel Engaging and somewhat experimental narration and challenging politics I plan to make a discussion video about this book, so I ll save a lot of my thoughts, but let me say that this was brilliant.The second person narration is extremely powerful, as it confronts you the implied American or Western reader and implicates you directly in the events that have taken place in the novel and as complicit with the politics that shaped the landscape that produced it [...]

It is now 2013, and no doubt many Pakistanis like our titular narrator have reason to be suspicious of America, perhaps over secret agreements and drone strikes I will not deny that, nor claim they are unjustified But this book is written and set much earlier, in the reign of Bush II, where bile flowed freely and anti Americanism was open everywhere The Reluctant Fundamentalist is trying to be a political allegory yet also a complex psychological piece, yet it accomplishes neither Most of the [...]

Sjajan neobican ima ono nesto specificno za autore poreklom iz Indije i Pakistana sjednom finom notom humora meni veoma dragog Prava je kupio jedan srpski izdavac, ali je zapao u teskoce i knjiga verovatno nece skoro biti objavljena na srpskom Za sve one kojima se dopala knjiga Pitanja i odgovori Vikasa Svarupa Laguna ili Beli tigar IPS

Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance Ah, I see I have alarmed you Do not be frightened by my beard I am a lover of America I noticed that you were looking for something than looking, in fact you seemed to be on a mission, and since I am both a native of this city and a speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services.So begins the The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid a great opening paragraph which catches your eye and which in fact made me purchase this book Advi [...]

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 believable and on a 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 imm [...]

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a lesson in civility Its pacing is practiced and hospitable There is ceremony and sublimation Such is the story of Changez, a Pakistani Princeton graduate and one time corporate star in NYC, told on a wonderful day in Lahore His shadowy interlocutor is an American of unknown intentions The novel offers a modest immigrant s tale While it is clear there is extreme emotion just under the surface, the notion of any real threat remains uncertain It is this menace which [...]

Supremely interesting and well told, but I ll have to think a lot about the ending Still, I m very glad I read it.

The story is told in first person as if the narrator is talking to you he addresses you sir directly It took me awhile to get used to it because Hamid did not introduce his characters first before starting this narrative The plot is simple Changez is a Pakistani young man who has finished his degree at Princeton, lands a good paying job at Underwood Samson and is having an affair with Erica who seems to be his ticket to full entry to Manhattan s powerful and rich circles However, 9 11 happens an [...]

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 really take care [...]

At first, I thought The Reluctant Fundamentalist was a book about a radicalized extremest That, if anything, reflects my own cultural expectations and prejudices as a American And just one of the ways that Hamid navigates ambiguity to manipulate his reader s emotions while making them think Hamid s protagonist Changez is far from a terrorist And the titular fundamentalism has zero to do with religion Instead, it refers to Changez s Yale educated role as a Wall Street valuation analyst Where they [...]

The inability to let go of an idealized past is a recurring theme in Mohsin Hamid s The Reluctant Fundamentalist Just in the same manner that America erroneously idealizes a pre September Eleven Utopia in the United States, Erica idealizes her relationship with her deceased boyfriend Chris likewise, just how America is unable to let go of the past by engaging in blind vengeful tactics against the Middle East, so is Erica unable to let go of her past relationship with Chris and so she recedes int [...]

I seem to be reading lots of books about immigrants lately I ve had this audiobook in my shelf to read for a while now For some reason I decided to download it this weekend and couldn t stop listening until the end.I also think that writing a good review about The Reluctant Fundamentalist is way above my pay grade, so I am going to use a few adjectives to describe the book and my reaction to it as best I can About the book Enigmatic,Candid, elegant, nuanced, relevant, thoughtful, bitter, powerfu [...]

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 surprise me, but still page after page, chapter aft [...]

I enjoyed this book it was different from what I usually read.I could relate to changez cause I know so many Pakistanis I loved the way the story was told even though it was a bit confusing what annoyed me about this book was the character s relationship with Erica they were so ill suited and his attachment to her was so not understandable to me how the character s personality changed was really interesting to read and to look at things from a point of view of a Muslim who lived in America at th [...]

I think I would have enjoyed this book 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 appreciative of the educat [...]

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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, p [...]

A lot has been written on 9 11, some from a perspective of an American, some from a NRI living there, some from an Afghan, some from a victim, some from a family of the victim Each crisis, each tragedy affects each of us in very different ways and when multiplied by our current circumstances, affects us accordingly Then why are all of us expected to react or behave in the same way, why any different reaction is looked as cruel or insensitive For every war there is a victory, despite the losses o [...]