the reluctant fundamentalist by mohsin hamid

I have not been blogging for quite some time now. My sister's death on January 26th has slowed down almost everything for us, life still isn't back to normal yet. We have missed many book club sessions and this time when we received mail from Aaron and Sakina to attend the 2nd of may on the reluctant fundamentalist, we (meaning Dr Roy and I) decided we would attend.

I only got hold of the book yesterday and while watching a bollywood show on Astro channel, I managed to complete the book.

When I had 15 pages left to conclusion, Dr Roy asked me how I felt about the book and I said I don't know, its different. I often think some books have the end justifying every bit of its content and some others do not even need that end. With the reluctant fundamentalist, it could have been the latter.

I think this novel looks at the increasingly volatile and precariously balanced relationship between the West (meaning America) and the East (Muslim countries), and how without a certain sense of empathy, this equation can steadily spiral downwards. There is much in it about identity and relationships, both on a personal level and a national one.

Set amidst the backdrop of business malaise in 2001 and the impact on New York of the September 11th attacks, Hamid's protagonist is a man called Changez (sounds more like changes to me), a fresh faced young Pakistani student at Princeton who was later head hunted into a plum role with a New York valuation firm and with top financial analysts. Besides revelling in his new expense account lifestyle, enjoying the sophistication and comfort of his new cosmopolitan life, miles away from his humble roots in Lahore, he also falls deeply in obsession with an American woman.

The novel takes place entirely at a cafe table in Lahore, Pakistan where Changez, tells an unnamed (and unheard) American man the recent events of his life from his graduation in Princeton, his trip to Greece with school friends, his truncated romance and long-running obsession with Erica (an allegory intended here with amERICA) an anorexic classmate, who is in turn obsessed with her dead boyfriend, his meteoric rise in his first job with the elite valuation firm, Underwood Sampsons (again an allegory with US) and the build-up and aftermath of 9/11 altering Changez's view of America at least as much as America's view of him.

But why are these two meeting, and where is this conversation actually heading? There is a gradual sense of increasing menace as he describes the chain of events that have led to this moment, and there are enough hints to tell you that the ending may not be to his listener's liking, nor to ours. The suspense builds as Changez leads the American up to the present. There's a sense of foreboding, of mutual suspicion and distrust, but the reader can't tell who's in danger till the last moment, and arguably not even then.

This novel is a dramatic monologue, in other words a half-conversation, a half-story. Is the reader expected to provide the other half of the novel's meaning? Was there an American at all sitting there and talking to Changez? Was it all in his imagination, an illusion, a fantasy?

Is this novel a realistic depiction of Pakistan's troubles? Is it a shrewd description of one man's troubled progress or digress, and is it worth reading to discover the subtle truths that critics of the West are not necessarily ignorant or violent, and that the most dangerous fundamentalists are not necessarily
religious?

Are we absolutely sure that the American who wears a black suit with bulges in places that might cover a hidden holster is a CIA/FBI agent or that a bearded Muslim with a long robe is a terrorist? Is the message telling us that appearances can be deceptive?

In the reluctant fundamentalist, Changez largely shares a love-hate equation with the US. He loves being a New Yorker, both his high-flying job and girlfriend fill his heart with a sense of pride. However, at the same time, Hamid's protagonist is no pushover. Clearly, Changez has a mind of his own and feels a deep sense of attachment to his motherland (Pakistan). The fact that bright minds like him have to desert their own country, to fill the coffers of an already overdeveloped, supercilious country, leaves him frustrated.

This realisation further dawns upon him when 9/11 occurs and Changez feels a strange sense of thrill at 'someone bringing America to its knees'. From there on, life is never the same and his disenchantment with America is complete.

Interestingly, Hamid's point here is that a feeling of fundamentalism can arise in the unlikeliest of people, when they feel pushed to a corner. Though the book does not, in any way, glorify fundamentalism, it subtly points at how sparks of fundamentalism can be ignited in the most placid looking people and circumstances.

Mohsin Hamid was born and grew up in Lahore, Pakistan. He attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School, worked for several years as a management consultant in New York and as a freelance journalist in Lahore, and now lives mainly in London.

His first novel, Moth Smoke, was published in 2000, his second novel, The Reluctant fundamentalist, was released in the U.S. in 2007. It was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize. He said that people often ask him if he is the book's Pakistani protagonist. He wonders why they never ask if he is the American listener. After all, a novel can often be a divided man's conversation with himself...

I feel in some ways, The Reluctant Fundamentalist reads like a first novel, particularly given the parallels with Hamid's own life as evidenced by the biographical details on the book jacket. However, it is in fact his second, and one notices there are deeper possibilities in the construction of the novel than the simple use of autobiographical elements..

Did I feel sympathy for Changez? No, our lives are made of choices and it was his choice to give up the American dream and go back to his home country. Did I admire him in any way at all? Yes, perhaps I did.

Finally, the Reluctant Fundamentalist is a quick, compelling read and I think Hamid is a writer to watch out for. Will attempt to read Moth Smoke now.