Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finely worked prose covering deeply felt issues but too unresolved to reach the highest marks, 31 Oct 2007
There is nothing bloated or overdone about Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Yet this sparse, finely cropped short novel tackles some of the challenging issues. Changez, a Pakistani Muslim from a once wealthy family in Lahore, experiences his own version of the American Dream when his talent and his Princeton scholarship lead him to a high-flying job in the world of New York finance and to relationship with a beautiful, enigmatic all-American girl who represents his passport into high society as well. But, over aromatic food and exotic drinks back in Lahore, Changez relates in a one-sided conservation with an American traveller how he never felt entirely at ease and how the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the subsequent repercussions - both political and personal ones - roused him from his American Dream: his reluctance to follow the advice of his mentor in business to focus on the fundamentals is replaced by an hankering to concentrate on fundamentals of a very different sort.
Yet at times the very sparsity which makes the novel so compelling leaves the reader in a void of ignorance. One is, for instance, driven to seek to understand Changez's conversion but the text provides so little challenge to Changez's narrative that it is left flimsy, incomplete and thus unresolved. This is perhaps Hamid's intention - to set out clearly that there are no easy answers; that Westerners will always fail to understand the East. In that sense this is a deeply unsettling novel and leaves one wishing for just a little more, a little more insight, a little more depth. The sense of `unfinishnessed' is only heightened by the ambiguous, unresolved but perfectly composed ending. Its short listing for the Booker Prize can be justified on the grounds of its fine prose, well-worked form and challenging topics alone but one can equally understand why it didn't win. It is perhaps in the end just a tad too ambiguous, too ethereal, to deliver the sort of challenge which would make it stand head and shoulders above the rest. All round an excellent read which will linger.
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37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully balanced portrayal of the subtleties of East Vs West, 27 Feb 2008
WARNING: SPOILERS
I am responding to some of the criticisms of the book in other reviews(that it is simply anti-American), which I feel have completely misunderstood it. The premise of the book is a conversation between Changez (a Pakistani who used to live in New York) and an American. The conversation occurs in Changez's home town, Lahore and the narrative reports Changez's side of the conversation, so it reads like a monologue. As they talk throughout the day, Changez reports his time in America and the reason he is now living in Pakistan. In so doing, he highlights the post 9/11 tensions between America and Muslim countries.
One criticism below is that the book is simply anti-American and distastefully so. I would strongly disagree. The narrative seemed to me to be a love story between the Pakistani narrator, Changez, and the nation of America. The character's gradual disillusionment with America is counterbalanced by his love for it and longing to be part of it, and there is a hint at some disgust at himself for still having such a connection with it, through Erica, an American girl he fell in love with.
Another criticism made in these reviews is that his change of heart towards America is not adequately explained. I think in this case, 'less is more'. The fact that his 'falling out of love' with America is not fully explained seems perfectly natural: many divorcees find it difficult to explain their breakdown of relationship. The gradual distancing of himself from American culture is as much about a psychological struggle to reconcile his true identity as it is a critique on the country's politics.
Hamid seems to hold in tension throughout the narrative this 'love-hate' relationship between East and West and does it with great subtlety and art. As a Westerner, I think it brings the complex issues of Islamic fundamentalism and America's 'war on terror' to the fore with great sympathy and balance. So much so, that the ending, being ambiguous, leaves you facing your own prejudices. Who is in danger at the end, Changez or the American? Has Changez lured the American into a trap, as part of his new strategy to stop America, or is he entirely innocent? Is Changez under threat from the American or not? I don't believe that the ending is a weakness of the book. Rather, it is purposefully, wonderfully ambiguous, leaving the reader to challenge your own preconceptions and sterotypes - who do we see as the real enemy?
In conclusion, I think this book is excellently, sensitively written, delicately handling complex issues. It is not perfect, and at times the monologue style of the narrative can seem a little limiting or clumsy. But it is a very well-written, thoughtful book, that deserves a thoughtful, considered response.
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72 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Could have been so much more, 18 Aug 2007
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a short work - perhaps straying into the novella category - that takes the form of one side of a conversation over a Pakistani café table between a man, Changez, and an unvoiced American stranger.
Changez recites his life story - brought up in a family of fading wealth in Pakistan, studying with a prestigious scholarship at Princeton University, and working for a high-paying financial services company - Underwood Samson - in New York. Changez receives praise and opportunity as a reward for his brilliance until world events - the attacks on the World Trade Center and subsequent was and tension in Afghanistan and Pakistan lead him to disillusionment with the west. All this is juxtaposed with advice to the American stranger on menu choices and assurances of good intentions.
The trouble is, the novel lacks any real depth or substance. The narrative technique of interspersing straight biography with casual conversation started to get irritating and was, I suspect, a device to add bulk and texture to a thin narrative. The narrative, too, didn't last long enough to explain how a man who had embraced Mammon with such enthusiasm should, over the space of a fortnight, be prepared to toss it all in for a life of uncertainty back in Pakistan. It's not that such a change of heart is impossible, but it is unlikely enough to require some pretty deep explanation which was not on offer here.
And the ending, when it comes, is so ambiguous that it simply frustrates. Apparently Changez brought the USA to standstill - but without a plausible explanation of how he did it. And the encounter with the American is left hanging. How did the conversation end? Perhaps this was intended to add to the literary effect, but one wonders whether it was a case that Hamid had developed a storyline so far and didn't know how to resolve it.
This is an easy, fast read and is not without some merits. The novel does cause one to question - briefly - how Muslims have been supposed to relate to the USA and its foreign policy in recent years. The title, too, raises a smile. The financial institution is supposed to have an ethos of concentrating on the fundamentals, and as Changez decides the world of high finance is not for him, he becomes a sort of reluctant fundamentalist in one sense and, perhaps, a more willing Fundamentalist in another sense. But overall, one is left feeling that the work could have been so much more with twice the number of pages and without the irritating mono-dialogue.
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