Mohsin Hamid: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

[Stewart]

Given the brouhaha regarding the length of Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach (is it a novel? is it not?) at the 2007 Booker, Mohsin Hamid’s second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, seems to have escaped similar accusations, itself weighing in under two hundred pages. And like McEwan’s, it’s a slow burn affair that thrills throughout, although its conclusion frustrates more than disappoints.

Told as a dramatic monologue, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, has Pakistani national, Changez (Urdu for Genghis), telling the story of his life to a nervous American over the table of a Lahore café. Day gives way to night as Changez tells of his studies at Princeton and subsequent employment at Underwood Samson, a firm specialising in evaluating companies for potential acquisition. It’s a well paid job and, when not being professional, his private life is given over to the love of his life, Erica. But, when two planes hit the World Trade Center, Changez - as his name implies - changes.

Changez’s dialogue makes for easy and quick reading. He’s well spoken, has an extensive vocabulary, and an eye for detail, which you would expect given the nature of his job. The problem with this monologue approach is that to convey the current setting, whatever drama there is also has to come via speech, and Hamid’s novel lets itself down here. Chapters begin and close with references to the surroundings as a way of tying in with Changez’s story which, when paired with direct addressing to the unnamed American, strain the narrative.

How did I know you were American? No, not by the colour of your skin; we have a range of complexions in this country, and yours occurs often among the people of our northwest frontier. Nor was it your dress that gave you away; a European tourist could as easily have purchased in Des Moines your suit, with its single vent, and your button-down shirt. True, your hair, short-cropped, and your expansive chest - the chest, I would say, of a man who bench-presses regularly, and maxes out well above two-twenty-five - are typical of a certain type of American; but then again, sportsmen and soldiers of all nationalities tend to look alike. Instead it was your bearing that allowed me to identify you, and I do not mean that as an insult, for I see your face has hardened, but merely as an observation.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a superficial novel, telling its story and lacking depth. Sure, it offers up some food for thought regarding American foreign policy when Changez talks of clashes around Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India but there’s not much else to take away. Changez’s passage from high-flying businessman to radical happens with ease and is somewhat unconvincing, being without much, if any, internal conflict over the two nations on which his life straddles . The most interesting part for me was the character of Erica, her name taken from America, who, like said country, initially accepts him only to distance herself and remain rapt in the past.

There’s not much mileage to be had from Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist although it is, for the most part, a well-written affair. Despite the occasional low (scene dressing, mostly) the narrative is well told and consistent. There’s cultural texture as Changez offers advice on what to eat and drink in Lahore, explains peoples’ actions around them, but ultimately he fails to explain himself before the novel ends abruptly leaving the reader to fill in their own blanks which I was reluctant to do as it took the fun out of fundamentalist.

[B&b ex libris]

I fully agree with your take on The Reluctant Fundamentalist. I felt the same after completing it, it is too bad as the writing did have great potential and the story as well....it just seemed to stop short of good to be mediocre. To me it was the preaching that really pushed me over to dislike, but I do think the unresolvedness and lack of development of character tied in tightly with that. I'll post my take.

Here is my review, I have it posted on my book review blog as well:

Title: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Author: Mohsim Hamid

The book, this book was as a whole very interesting and intriguing, and I read it in one day (24 hour period). The storytelling brought me into Changez's life and took me to where he was. However, I will warn this is a book where the main character has a chip on his shoulder. Changez is a 22 year old from Pakistan, who graduates from Princeton at the top of his class and gets one of the most coveted jobs in his field. But he becomes disillusioned with his "American Dream" when the twin towers fall and his fears that he does not belong in this enemy nation prevail. The more he is affected by the events of 9-11 he falls deeper and deeper into dislike for America and seemingly everything American.

As much as I enjoyed reading this book, because the writing of it was fully captivating, I did not like to be schooled and preached at.Much of the novel is Changez retelling his time in America to his American tourist stranger-friend visiting Pakistan, he says: your country this, and you do that (referring to Americans). I think this approach is flawed. I do agree that he would have gone through horrid experiences after the attack of the twin towers, as far as people responding poorly to him, and being very angry at him even though he did nothing. I guess I was in the boat for being compassionate about that, but not for blaming the US for his being in NY and graduating from Princeton...which Changez comes to view as if he had been captured and brought here to be a traitor. .

What I will take from it is this: I loved the writing style Hamin used it kept me interested in the whole story, and his characters were lovable and real and it was easy to become emotionally invested in their lives.
Life during this time was extremely difficult for middle eastern folk in the US, especially right after the 9-11 incident. America became sour and angry and channeled their aggressions where it should not have. But, I will not apologize for the brief scene of patriotism that struck after the planes crashed, the flags, the unity, the feelings of brotherhood. Changez was annoyed by this, saying that we to embrace patriotism was to go back in time to WWI, more generalizations. HA!


All in all I would recommend this, but let people know the author is pushy. It is somewhat understandable, but I am not into being shoved either way. I won't be made to hate to hate the US and I won't be made to hate everything unknown. Just be aware of the anti-American sentiment. Some readers will not have a hard time with the views in the book at all, as it is the prevalent mentality that you hear around here (liberal northwest)from bums at coffee shops, and even many people of stature in our communities here. However, because I am not in complete agreement with the author as far as my sentiment about America and Americans, I felt pushed around, or maybe lumped into a generalization, which is seems hypocritical for the author to do since as far as I can tell that is what he fights against.

Interview with the author, Mohsin Hamid: EGO magazine: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Powell's book review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

I read this book for the Orbis Terrarum (the whole world) book challenge that I am hosting. It is my title for Pakistan.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist quote:

But as I reacclimatized and my surroundings once again became familiar, it occurred to me that the house had not changed in my absence. I had changed; I was looking about me with the sees of a foreigner, and not just any foreigner, but that particular type of entitled and unsympathetic American who so annoyed me when I encountered him in the classrooms and workplaces of your country's elite. This realization angered me; staring at my reflection in the speckled glass of my bathroom mirror I resolved to exorcise the unwelcome sensibility by which I had become possessed (p. 124).

[Colette Jones]

Originally Posted by B&b ex libris

Just be aware of the anti-American sentiment.

Yes, beware! Here's what I wrote about it shortly after reading it:

I believe it was the failed relationship rather than any real political conviction which "changed" Changez. In the current climate, when it is so fashionable to have anti-American sentiments, Hamid provides us with a character who uses that fashion as an excuse to get away from something he can't handle. Genius!

Unfortunately, lots of people take Changez' preaching as support for their own prejudice, causing me to say this:

It is these possible readings of the novel that made me reluctant to rate it higher. I eventually did rate it very highly because of the way I read it, which was quite light-hearted and fun. I have to hope it doesn't win though, because of the possible anti-American readings, which are much more likely in the current climate than the way I read it.

and

I wonder how many people reading it will not realize it is set over a year before the Iraq war, and attribute Changez's decisions to that situation.

[Funhouse]

I hated this novel, not for any anti-American sentiments it expresses, just for its awkward, contrived structure and ham-fisted characterisation. Hands down the worst book on last year's Booker shortlist.

[Mirabell]

And it got so many good reviews, in the US, GB and here, too. Here, ok, we like to indulge in a bit of Antiamericanism, man, you need to understand that, we gotta vent our antisemitism and are not allowed to attack jews directly (bummer), so we started being really good antiamericans and antizionists. yay for mohsin hamid, I say.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Funhouse

Hands down the worst book on last year's Booker shortlist.

Personally I'd be giving Nicola Barker's Darkmans the wooden spoon in that race, but I don't think either title deserved to make the final cut.

[fausto]

Really? Darkmans was great.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by fausto

Really? Darkmans was great.

I just didn't get it. So here's a new thread for it. And we'll leave this to The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

[matt.todd]

I just got around to reading this (free copy from work), and my thoughts are here. Or, if you don't want to go there...

I really enjoyed this. I don't think the whole anti-American bit was very big - though maybe I just missed it. That angle certainly could have been played up much, much more. Instead, it kind of deals with the break-down of the American dream, which is, I think, far more interesting territory.

And I'm about to post in the Darkmans thread...