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A review by clairealex
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
5.0
The whole 180 page novel is a dramatic monologue, characterizing the listener as well as the speaker. It is well sustained. Yes, the present scene interrupts the narrative, but always briefly. And yes, one does have to accept the improbability of such a long conversation among strangers, but in the end it becomes somewhat plausible.
Attention is kept by an early mention of Changez's having left a high status job after 8 months. One keeps wondering if he left or was fired. Then Erica is introduced, and the attempt at relationship provides additional interest.
It is also a novel about Changez's emerging self awareness. At first he buys into values at Princeton and at his workplace, to seek the financial fundamentals only and to avoid the big picture, which being interpreted becomes look at money values and ignore people values: ignore who will lose a job if a profitable plan is followed, for instance. Looking back Changez realizes he had been aware but suppressed some of the value conflicts, but we see awareness grow through situations like 9/11 and its aftermath, US seeming to side with India in pending potential war between India and Pakistan, and Changez's encounters with the head of a book store being valued by the company for purchase by another company that will most likely drop the trade books because their market is a drag on other publishing. Once aware, he refuses to work on the book publisher job and is subsequently fired. It is such a conscious decision that it seems more his than the company's.
Is Erica there just to provide interest or is there more function to her character? She retreats to an inner world where her first lover, Chris--who has died, is more present that her outer world. Changez has moments of an inner world more real as he "maintains" a relationship with her after she has disappeared. For him this is another form of denial but parallels his denial of values, though the relationship one never seems to be resolved.
The long conversation becomes plausible when the listener's gun-pouch in mentioned (maybe before, but that was when I got it). Changez dismisses the pouch as business-card holder. The same is mentioned at the end. Is this Changez's denial at work again? Or his role playing. He has played the role of New Yorker, of Erica's deal lover, Chris, and of good employee. It can't be ignorance because too often we are told about his ability to read other people.
If Changez knew, why did he play along? Perhaps he had had enough of waiting for the inevitable even though he claimed to be living normally. Perhaps it was his way to suicide.
But we know the listener pulled a gun (that Changez calls business card holder again). We do not hear the shot fired. And the waiter has been following; I will have to reread to be sure which side he was on.
Attention is kept by an early mention of Changez's having left a high status job after 8 months. One keeps wondering if he left or was fired. Then Erica is introduced, and the attempt at relationship provides additional interest.
It is also a novel about Changez's emerging self awareness. At first he buys into values at Princeton and at his workplace, to seek the financial fundamentals only and to avoid the big picture, which being interpreted becomes look at money values and ignore people values: ignore who will lose a job if a profitable plan is followed, for instance. Looking back Changez realizes he had been aware but suppressed some of the value conflicts, but we see awareness grow through situations like 9/11 and its aftermath, US seeming to side with India in pending potential war between India and Pakistan, and Changez's encounters with the head of a book store being valued by the company for purchase by another company that will most likely drop the trade books because their market is a drag on other publishing. Once aware, he refuses to work on the book publisher job and is subsequently fired. It is such a conscious decision that it seems more his than the company's.
Is Erica there just to provide interest or is there more function to her character? She retreats to an inner world where her first lover, Chris--who has died, is more present that her outer world. Changez has moments of an inner world more real as he "maintains" a relationship with her after she has disappeared. For him this is another form of denial but parallels his denial of values, though the relationship one never seems to be resolved.
The long conversation becomes plausible when the listener's gun-pouch in mentioned (maybe before, but that was when I got it). Changez dismisses the pouch as business-card holder. The same is mentioned at the end. Is this Changez's denial at work again? Or his role playing. He has played the role of New Yorker, of Erica's deal lover, Chris, and of good employee. It can't be ignorance because too often we are told about his ability to read other people.
If Changez knew, why did he play along? Perhaps he had had enough of waiting for the inevitable even though he claimed to be living normally. Perhaps it was his way to suicide.
But we know the listener pulled a gun (that Changez calls business card holder again). We do not hear the shot fired. And the waiter has been following; I will have to reread to be sure which side he was on.