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The Reluctant Fundamentalist by: Mohsin Hamid List Price: £7.99 City Travel Guides Price: £4.99 You Save: £3.00 (38%)Prices subject to change. |
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Binding: Paperback EAN: 9780141029542 ISBN: 0141029544 Label: Penguin Manufacturer: Penguin Number Of Pages: 224 Publication Date: April 24, 2008 Publisher: Penguin Studio: Penguin Sales Rank: 225 Related Items: Related Items:      see moreBrowse for similar items by category:
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 Rating:  - The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin HamidA Pakistani's experience of living in America shapes Hamid's second, deservedly award winning novel. Changez, the protagonist, peculiarly unfolds his story in a lively monologue style to an unidentified American stranger as they sit in a cafe in his hometown, Lahore. This tale of an intelligent and hardworking young man who gets a sought after job at a valuation firm and finds love in New York City sounds idyllic, yet nothing is as simple as it seems. His performance at work is parallel to his unconventional and heartbreaking relationship with Erica. Furthermore, Changez's controversial reaction to 9/11, explaining that he "smiled" when he saw the news on television, is profound and perplexing. Yet, Hamid's ability to have created a character ... Read More: Rating: - lovely bookThis is a beautifully written book. Take a look at the revues; they are mainly 4* but equally 5 and 2-3*. This means that readers emotions are widely divided, as I would hope when the author realizes that some good might just eventually come from the recent atrocities between the American and Muslim nations. Rating: - A unique story, brilliantly toldThis is my pick of the year. The story is told in narrative form and is for the most part a dialogue with a stranger that the narrator meets in a cafe/restaurant in Pakistan. I found the style of writing worked extremely well with this type of story. The story and message itself is one of how a young Pakistani goes to the US to make a life and does so very successfully. It then takes the reader through the events that changes the central character's outlook on life and the US in particularly. The story telling is compelling, and the central character is extremely well developed and believable. This is not the anti-American politically driven book that some may think it is - it is simply the tale of how someone changes their ... Read More: Rating:  - GROLIESI am hastening firstly to explain that I normally avoid fiction that has won a prize or been shortlisted for a prize, particularly British prizes, and most definitely that I avoid paying for them. However, one is occasionally obliged to read them, so I do so diligently and quickly to get the duty out of the way. Rather like eating your boiled cabbage first. Secondly, to whom is story likely to appeal - who will like this novella? To answer this, see the title of my review, which comes from a tabloid article on the acronymous notations which doctors (particularly GPs) allegedly make on our case notes - eg, `GOK'= God Only Knows, and `UBI'=Unexplained Beer Injury. I read these articles avidly, as they say so much in so short a space, and I am sometimes ... Read More: Rating: - A mediocre self-indulgent love taleWhat the success of this book shows is that if writing is set against the backdrop of major events (in this case 9/11) and with a title that hints of current hot debates and themes (Islamic fundamentalism), then you can write anything and it will seem meaningful to some. However the Reluctant Fundamentalist is barely about 9/11 nor about Islamic Fundamentalism, and gives us little or no insight into either. It is a mediocre, self-indulgent east-west love-tale, which has a somewhat out-of-high-school juvenile feel to it. In fact, it is not really a novel. It is a longish essay of sorts, of personal impressions and thoughts, none of them really fully developed, of a New York based Muslim after 9/11. Given the potency of debate at the time, ... Read More: |
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