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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
A simple concept well-executed, but it did not grip me. The switch from one fundamentalism to another was rushed - I wanted to follow his development more closely after his move back to Pakistan. The suspicion on both sides was captured well, as well as the self-victimising which makes them feel entitled to commit atrocities against the other. However, the structure implies an equal experience of victimisation when it is not equal.
The representation of Erica was fucked. As brittle, as needing fixing, seeing Chris as a rival (the compulsory monogamy is stifling and disgusting). The worst part was Changez thinking having sex with her would help - when she clearly was not in any state to provide full consent.
His experiences at Underwood Samson mirror my own with consulting so far - the flow when solving a problem, the approach to valuation taken, the excitement of anything being possible, of doors being opened, even the "power" of the view from the lobby. That "... supporting my feet were the achievements of the most technologically advanced civilization our species had ever known." The "confident self-satisfaction" of those who work there, and how identical everyone who works there is - "not one of [them are] either short or overweight."
Interesting quotes:
"Four thousand years ago, we, the people of the Indus River basin, had cities that were laid out on grids and boasted underground sewers, while the ancestors of those who would invade and colonize America were illiterate barbarians. Now our cities were largely unplanned, unsanitary affairs, and America had universities with individual endowments greater than our national budget for education."
"You're a watchful guy. You know where that comes from?" I shook my head. "It comes from feeling out of place."
"... I missed my family and the comfort of a family residence, where generations stayed together, instead of apart in an atomized state of age segregation..."
"... I found myself observing Erica as she stood or sat, surrounded by her acquaintances. At these moments she frequently became introspective; it was as though their presence allowed her to withdraw, to recede a half-step inside herself. She reminded me of a child who could sleep only with the door open and the light on."
"It is remarkable indeed how we human beings are capable of delighting in the mating call of a flower while we are surrounded by the charred carcasses of our fellow animals—but then we are remarkable creatures. Perhaps it is in our nature to recognize subconsciously the link between mortality and procreation—between, that is to say, the finite and the infinite—and we are in fact driven by reminders of the one to seek out the other."
"“The economy’s an animal,” Jim continued. “It evolves. First it needed muscle. Now all the blood it could spare was rushing to its brain. That’s where I wanted to be. In finance. In the coordination business. And that’s where you are. You’re blood brought from some part of the body that the species doesn’t need anymore. The tailbone. Like me. We came from places that were wasting away.” I had finished replacing the tire, so I shut the boot and unlocked the doors. “Most people don’t recognize that, kid,” he said, buckling himself in beside me and nodding his head in the direction of the darkened building we had left. “They try to resist change. Power comes from becoming change.”"
" I could not respect how he functioned so completely immersed in the structures of his professional micro-universe. Yes, I too had previously derived comfort from my firm’s exhortations to focus intensely on work, but now I saw that in this constant striving to realize a financial future, no thought was given to the critical personal and political issues that affect one’s emotional present. In other words, my blinders were coming off, and I was dazzled and rendered immobile by the sudden broadening of my arc of vision."
"I spent that night considering what I had become. There really could be no doubt: I was a modern-day janissary, a servant of the American empire at a time when it was invading a country with a kinship to mine and was perhaps even colluding to ensure that my own country faced the threat of war. Of course I was struggling! Of course I felt torn! I had thrown in my lot with the men of Underwood Samson, with the officers of the empire, when all along I was predisposed to feel compassion for those, like Juan-Bautista, whose lives the empire thought nothing of overturning for its own gain."
"Such journeys have convinced me that it is not always possible to restore one’s boundaries after they have been blurred and made permeable by a relationship: try as we might, we cannot reconstitute ourselves as the autonomous beings we previously imagined ourselves to be. Something of us is now outside, and something of the outside is now within us."
"A common strand appeared to unite these conflicts, and that was the advancement of a small coterie’s concept of American interests in the guise of the fight against terrorism, which was defined to refer only to the organized and politically motivated killing of civilians by killers not wearing the uniforms of soldiers. I recognized that if this was to be the single most important priority of our species, then the lives of those of us who lived in lands in which such killers also lived had no meaning except as collateral damage."
The representation of Erica was fucked. As brittle, as needing fixing, seeing Chris as a rival (the compulsory monogamy is stifling and disgusting). The worst part was Changez thinking having sex with her would help - when she clearly was not in any state to provide full consent.
His experiences at Underwood Samson mirror my own with consulting so far - the flow when solving a problem, the approach to valuation taken, the excitement of anything being possible, of doors being opened, even the "power" of the view from the lobby. That "... supporting my feet were the achievements of the most technologically advanced civilization our species had ever known." The "confident self-satisfaction" of those who work there, and how identical everyone who works there is - "not one of [them are] either short or overweight."
Interesting quotes:
"Four thousand years ago, we, the people of the Indus River basin, had cities that were laid out on grids and boasted underground sewers, while the ancestors of those who would invade and colonize America were illiterate barbarians. Now our cities were largely unplanned, unsanitary affairs, and America had universities with individual endowments greater than our national budget for education."
"You're a watchful guy. You know where that comes from?" I shook my head. "It comes from feeling out of place."
"... I missed my family and the comfort of a family residence, where generations stayed together, instead of apart in an atomized state of age segregation..."
"... I found myself observing Erica as she stood or sat, surrounded by her acquaintances. At these moments she frequently became introspective; it was as though their presence allowed her to withdraw, to recede a half-step inside herself. She reminded me of a child who could sleep only with the door open and the light on."
"It is remarkable indeed how we human beings are capable of delighting in the mating call of a flower while we are surrounded by the charred carcasses of our fellow animals—but then we are remarkable creatures. Perhaps it is in our nature to recognize subconsciously the link between mortality and procreation—between, that is to say, the finite and the infinite—and we are in fact driven by reminders of the one to seek out the other."
"“The economy’s an animal,” Jim continued. “It evolves. First it needed muscle. Now all the blood it could spare was rushing to its brain. That’s where I wanted to be. In finance. In the coordination business. And that’s where you are. You’re blood brought from some part of the body that the species doesn’t need anymore. The tailbone. Like me. We came from places that were wasting away.” I had finished replacing the tire, so I shut the boot and unlocked the doors. “Most people don’t recognize that, kid,” he said, buckling himself in beside me and nodding his head in the direction of the darkened building we had left. “They try to resist change. Power comes from becoming change.”"
" I could not respect how he functioned so completely immersed in the structures of his professional micro-universe. Yes, I too had previously derived comfort from my firm’s exhortations to focus intensely on work, but now I saw that in this constant striving to realize a financial future, no thought was given to the critical personal and political issues that affect one’s emotional present. In other words, my blinders were coming off, and I was dazzled and rendered immobile by the sudden broadening of my arc of vision."
"I spent that night considering what I had become. There really could be no doubt: I was a modern-day janissary, a servant of the American empire at a time when it was invading a country with a kinship to mine and was perhaps even colluding to ensure that my own country faced the threat of war. Of course I was struggling! Of course I felt torn! I had thrown in my lot with the men of Underwood Samson, with the officers of the empire, when all along I was predisposed to feel compassion for those, like Juan-Bautista, whose lives the empire thought nothing of overturning for its own gain."
"Such journeys have convinced me that it is not always possible to restore one’s boundaries after they have been blurred and made permeable by a relationship: try as we might, we cannot reconstitute ourselves as the autonomous beings we previously imagined ourselves to be. Something of us is now outside, and something of the outside is now within us."
"A common strand appeared to unite these conflicts, and that was the advancement of a small coterie’s concept of American interests in the guise of the fight against terrorism, which was defined to refer only to the organized and politically motivated killing of civilians by killers not wearing the uniforms of soldiers. I recognized that if this was to be the single most important priority of our species, then the lives of those of us who lived in lands in which such killers also lived had no meaning except as collateral damage."
This is a book I wish I'd read with a book club or been taught in a class or something, because I feel like my capacity to fully dissect and appreciate it isn't quite up to snuff? I feel like there are some elements I'm not prepared to grapple with on my own. I got the broad allegorical stuff, and I thought the novel made an elegant case for the idea that fundamentalism, or extremism in some form, is something that can rise up in anybody. Not because they're just inherently evil or bad, but because the world is frightening and people are reactive.
I totally missed that Underwood Sampson stood for "U.S." until I saw somebody else point it out in a review, which made me feel kind of stupid, but I did catch that Erica is, allegorically, America: when you trace her character as a symbol of the nation, her deep and unhealthy devotion to a dead lover named Chris (Christ? Get it?) then becomes something else, a commentary on the way America is attached to the ghost of a religion that comes from somewhere far away. Or something! See this is why I need to talk this through with other people. But Changez having a name with the word "Change" in it, the way he saddles these different identities, the way he feels at home in New York but not in America, and his loyalty and appreciation for Pakistan still anchoring him... it made for an interesting protagonist.
I also thought the narrative style and framing device was pretty cool. The sinister intentions (or lack thereof) of our narrator creep into the story with a good amount of subtlety and build. I loved the cliffhanger ending, too, we never get to know if the American agent dude makes it out alive. This was a quick read that made me think, so I'll call it a win in my book!
I totally missed that Underwood Sampson stood for "U.S." until I saw somebody else point it out in a review, which made me feel kind of stupid, but I did catch that Erica is, allegorically, America: when you trace her character as a symbol of the nation, her deep and unhealthy devotion to a dead lover named Chris (Christ? Get it?) then becomes something else, a commentary on the way America is attached to the ghost of a religion that comes from somewhere far away. Or something! See this is why I need to talk this through with other people. But Changez having a name with the word "Change" in it, the way he saddles these different identities, the way he feels at home in New York but not in America, and his loyalty and appreciation for Pakistan still anchoring him... it made for an interesting protagonist.
I also thought the narrative style and framing device was pretty cool. The sinister intentions (or lack thereof) of our narrator creep into the story with a good amount of subtlety and build. I loved the cliffhanger ending, too, we never get to know if the American agent dude makes it out alive. This was a quick read that made me think, so I'll call it a win in my book!
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved the voice and the structure! I listened to the audiobook and was thoroughly engaged! However, I feel a little lost about the ending...
Questo romanzo su un argomento che tutti conosciamo, ma dalla prospettiva "dell'altro" mi ha veramente impressionata, nel senso migliore del termine. Ho trovato lo stile del monologo molto scorrevole, anche se avrei voluto che l'autore approfondisse le motivazioni di Changez. Il paragrafo finale è uno dei migliori mai letti.
Disappointing. Sorry. With unbearable narration. Pity.
Cleverly presented, with a haunting and poignant evocation of a Lahore tea-shop as a backdrop, this almost monologue delivers its insights with gradually increasing intensity. At the end you have gone on a journey - and it is one that does provide something of an understanding of how a westernised man from the East may have embraced a very alternative view. Keeps you on edge right to the end.
Unexpected, thought-provoking, and sad. Good novel that packs an emotional wallop.
A quick and easily readable book. The protagonist tells his bi-cultural story to an unnamed stranger at a teahouse in Lahore. The issues of bi-culturalism and the difficulties that are inherent are described in an easy, conversational manner. I was taken in by Changez's story and manner of speaking. The tension builds as he lets you in on his honest feelings and the book ends with questions that must be faced.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes