The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid May 3, 2010

I have been going through a sort of reading frenzy over the past two weeks, doing too much reading and not enough writing so now I have a few book reviews to catch up on.  I had a tough time writing a review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist because it was the most unsettling of what I have read and, though the shortest book I have read in awhile, also raised the most questions.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is told from the perspective of a Pakistani man named Changez who has cornered an American man in the city of Lahore where he lives and taken him out to show him the city while also telling him his life story.  The entire tale is told as if you are the American man and Changez is telling you his story while interjecting to ask if you would like more tea? or to explain what is going on around you in the city of Lahore.  Changez’s tale is a troubling tale of disillusionment and fundamentalism.  Changez’s character is a constant contradiction as he relishes being consistently ranked as the best new hire at his financial firm but then berates the firm for their cold hearted capitalist fundamentals.  Due to his background, Changez should embrace capitalism, it is the only answer for him and his family that are quickly falling into ruin in the disintegrating Pakistani economy.  Instead, he rejects the American ideals and blames them for his troubles in Pakistan, feeling sorry for his neighbors in Afghanistan due to the “American interference” and conversely wishing America would intervene in Pakistan to help with the threat of Indian invasion. While I think Hamid’s point was to get us to sympathize with Changez and to see “the other side’s point of view”, I couldn’t get myself to sympathize with a character that complains about the blessings he has been given (Princeton education, good job, healthy family, etc).

The novel is also an allegory for how America conducts itself abroad (suspiciously and somewhat domineeringly) via the actions of the mysterious American who Changez is speaking to.  The reader is constantly suspicious of Changez and what his motives are for taking this mysterious American out to dinner.  His constant assurances that everything is fine just serves to deepen your worry as to what his true motives are.  Hamid does an excellent job of arousing the reader’s suspicions, making you aware that in this day and age, being American means being suspicious at least some of the time.  Who hasn’t been traveling and seen a bag that at first looks abandoned or noticed the security threat level has been raised again and had thoughts about turning around and going home?  Hamid reminds us that this is now a sad fact of life.

Advertisement