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coronaurora's review against another edition
4.0
This brought a smile to my face. A novella that is actually a fictional autobiography of an eponymous small-town peasant who builds himself a mini bottled water empire in an eponymous South Asian country, I found it tender, concerned and reliably informed about the milieu it talked from. There is a touching thread of an unconsummated love affair that almost survives the torrents of lives lived by the protagonist and his first love as they both exclusively chase their individual American dream in a big megapolis checking each of its trappings: the obligatory marriage and kid, the expanding business, the enveloping heart disease, the scams, the violence from those begrudging their money, and this somewhat-cinematic, almost-unbelievable rope of co-incidence imparts this otherwise distant book a welcome tenderness.
At barely 200 pages, the second person telling shoulders the leaps in year well and manages to keep you invested. In retrospect the casual telling of whole years in a few lines of prose befits a life lived chasing the materialistic objects and dubious social ephemeralities like "status" and "connections" which are the life-blood of social fabric in such countries.
Sharing its tone, themes and sentiments with the more voluminous Tash Aw's Five Star Billionaire published coincidentally in the same year, Hamid with his smaller canvas peopled with fewer characters achieves a similar concoction of sociological snapshot, decade-long sweep with principal characters in convincing mortal peril and sporting an identifiable contemplative mood cherry-topped with wry sense of humour. It shares with Aw's book much of its cleverness too, not least the ungainly title, the ironic Self Help Money Making chapter titles (Aw wrote for us whole self-help chapters), and like Aw's book, here too, it's the masterful offsetting of the self-reflexiveness and other literary tropes with genuine concern for the world state and some head-bending, heart-rending turns of phrase that make this a triumph.
At barely 200 pages, the second person telling shoulders the leaps in year well and manages to keep you invested. In retrospect the casual telling of whole years in a few lines of prose befits a life lived chasing the materialistic objects and dubious social ephemeralities like "status" and "connections" which are the life-blood of social fabric in such countries.
Sharing its tone, themes and sentiments with the more voluminous Tash Aw's Five Star Billionaire published coincidentally in the same year, Hamid with his smaller canvas peopled with fewer characters achieves a similar concoction of sociological snapshot, decade-long sweep with principal characters in convincing mortal peril and sporting an identifiable contemplative mood cherry-topped with wry sense of humour. It shares with Aw's book much of its cleverness too, not least the ungainly title, the ironic Self Help Money Making chapter titles (Aw wrote for us whole self-help chapters), and like Aw's book, here too, it's the masterful offsetting of the self-reflexiveness and other literary tropes with genuine concern for the world state and some head-bending, heart-rending turns of phrase that make this a triumph.
sortasamm's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
camillew's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Unclear what the main message or question was (not that there needs to be one it just made the reading experience weird.)
So far my least favorite of Hamids books (Exit west is first then the reluctant fundamentalist.) The book kinda just fell flat
So far my least favorite of Hamids books (Exit west is first then the reluctant fundamentalist.) The book kinda just fell flat
altowns's review against another edition
4.0
A very unusual book - I don't think I've read anything like it! Good fun and an easy read. I think the self-help framing is a bit more odd though.
banned_book's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Just when I think I'm finished with cynical authors - no one does it like Mohsin Hamid. To be candid, I'm a sucker for the second person on account of my overusing it in high school poetry. I know it's kitsch. Mostly I'm impressed by how he embodied ennui whilst successfully operating within the bounds of corrupt political and social systems, yet never named a single character.
aarongertler's review against another edition
5.0
No other book this year gave me such a vivid picture of its setting. In Filthy Rich, Mohsin Hamid tells of a nameless country (likely Pakistan) and the second-person protagonist who leaves a poor neighborhood for the big city. There, he becomes ("you become") a water-bottle manufacturer with enough money for a team of armed guards. (To ward off assassination from rival water-bottlers, of course.)
The book is an instruction manual, and Hamid takes his work seriously. You learn to bribe officials, pirate DVDs, and meet new people by growing a beard and becoming an Islamist. These lessons are given in good humor, and you quickly come to root for your own success, even as you become a thief and a killer and a bad husband.
Filthy Rich could have been set in any number of countries, and those countries make up something like ninety percent of the world's population. In today's world, wealth and vice appear to be nearly inseparable. This may not be a new condition, but it still makes me wonder how the world, Rising Asia and elsewhere, will transition to reward invention rather than force.
But don't just read it because it makes me sad. Read it because it's funny, and because it tells a nation's story in a third of the space normally required for such endeavors.
The book is an instruction manual, and Hamid takes his work seriously. You learn to bribe officials, pirate DVDs, and meet new people by growing a beard and becoming an Islamist. These lessons are given in good humor, and you quickly come to root for your own success, even as you become a thief and a killer and a bad husband.
Filthy Rich could have been set in any number of countries, and those countries make up something like ninety percent of the world's population. In today's world, wealth and vice appear to be nearly inseparable. This may not be a new condition, but it still makes me wonder how the world, Rising Asia and elsewhere, will transition to reward invention rather than force.
But don't just read it because it makes me sad. Read it because it's funny, and because it tells a nation's story in a third of the space normally required for such endeavors.
marcymurli's review against another edition
4.0
Brilliant. Witty. Hilarious. Clever. This book is a must read. Enough said!
evacos's review against another edition
4.0
Uhm.... would anyone like to explain what that burping fish had to do with anything?
ziagouel's review against another edition
4.0
What a beautiful, moving little book. On such small space the author managed to achieve something others couldn’t in tenfold of pages. I loved his humour and the empathy he had for his characters.
amjammi's review against another edition
4.0
Hamid seems to enjoy contrived plot devices (e.g. this novel disguised as a self-help book) but inside the forced frames he beautifully captures truth and humanity.