Review... Reluctant Fundamentalist

Although the title of the post says, Review, when I wrote this post, I hadn't finished reading it! But anyway... read on....

The book (The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid) is written in a very different manner. I am, since I have started reading the book, trying to write something with the same style, but I am so preoccupied by the perfectly structured book that I cannot think of anything else.

The book is about this Pakistani guy Changez, who is studying at Princeton on scholarship. He is resident of Lahore. The fighter in him helps him grab a prestigious job at this business firm, Underwood Samsons. He is a happy satisfied man, as he is a genius in his group. And although he doesn’t mention this, it is quite evident from the incidents that he is proud of himself as he despite being an asian is being loved by the Americans. The inferiority complex of the Asians and their high reverence for the Americans manifests in the course of happenings in the book. The author is in love with a NewYorker woman called Erica. That is another ego booster. The fact that a wheatish guy is being appreciated, lauded and accepted in an American community, and the verity that he is being accepted is quite marked in the book. And that’s what scores with the audience.

After the 9/11 occurrence, things start changing for Changez, (or so I guess… as I have not read beyond that till now) quite obvious part of the book, where the author becomes vulnerable and tries to leave the book’s ending at the reader’s emancipations. The reader might be wrong or right. So I am taking my chance.

The book’s title hereby becomes clear to all of us. The author respects the white skins. One of his best friends, is an American, Wainwright. The girl he is enamored to is an American. But maybe at the end, these people disown him. Because of the most obvious reasons.

The fundamentalist in him is confused. He has seen the change, in a very short span of time. The moment’s gone, the feeling’s over. He knows what the Americans think of him or of the multitudes of wheatish skinned people. But everything is so fast and therefore so blurred, he cant make up his mind. Sad but true.

Do asians really get such a treatment in the USA? Well, I have never been to USA. If ever I go, it will be only for pleasure and leisure. Or maybe education. But not work. Let me specify something here, as I can see you look quite perplexed. You are thinking of me being one of those bitches who say something but act unlikely. I need to mention here, that I might work, but it will be only to raise some fund for my studies, only if I need to do so…. That is.

USA, a dream which motivates people. However paralyzed america is after the Recession, it’s charm is too luring to be avoided. USA is USA. I hate the way I am patronizing a country I despise, but it is a author’s note, and an author can never be judgemental. Atleast I think so… infact no body should be judgemental. However hard it is. Was I just preachy and judgemental?