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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
sad
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought it was all right but then my class ripped apart and now I see a lot of issues with it. The main issues I had with this novel while reading it were that Erica was a nothing character and the Changez who was narrating the story and the Changez who lived in New York seemed like two totally different characters. I think the author would have done well to unify the two.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist was different. It is not a book I would normally read and it is written in a way that I have never encountered before. By this I mean the book starts off with the main character, Changez, talking to an unknown man. But, however, this conversation does not stop and then it hit me: THE WHOLE BOOK IS THIS CONVERSATION BETWEEN CHANGEZ AND THIS MAN!
But you never know what the American says in response to what Changez is saying, it is just Changez going on and on.
This bothered me at first, but I got over it because I started getting into the book, but not because of Changez, but of his girlfriend, Erica.
Erica sparked something in the book that brought it alive for me. She turned everything around because the book is about Americans, self identity and 9-11, which is pretty heavy stuff, but Erica and her struggles with her dead boyfriend, Chris, and also, her book bring this book back down to Earth.
Because this book was for class, we anaylzed it like the back of my hand and that wasn't really all that bad. It was interesting to look into the symbolism since it wasn't being shoved down our throats like in The Great Gatsby.
This book had me more focused on the symbols and the character's personalities rather than their stories and what they went through. Again, it was different. Different, but enjoyable and I would highly recommend it.
But you never know what the American says in response to what Changez is saying, it is just Changez going on and on.
This bothered me at first, but I got over it because I started getting into the book, but not because of Changez, but of his girlfriend, Erica.
Erica sparked something in the book that brought it alive for me. She turned everything around because the book is about Americans, self identity and 9-11, which is pretty heavy stuff, but Erica and her struggles with her dead boyfriend, Chris, and also, her book bring this book back down to Earth.
Because this book was for class, we anaylzed it like the back of my hand and that wasn't really all that bad. It was interesting to look into the symbolism since it wasn't being shoved down our throats like in The Great Gatsby.
This book had me more focused on the symbols and the character's personalities rather than their stories and what they went through. Again, it was different. Different, but enjoyable and I would highly recommend it.
Props to Hamid for a unique narrative format (at first). Un-props for using it to tell a kind of lame, obsessive love story and then making that story the impetus for becoming a violent political extremist. (Yeah, yeah, there was more to it than that, but the emphasis placed on the "romantic" storyline made other driving forces, deeper driving forces, seem the least important.) There are several glowing passages and points to be made here, but they get lost under drivel and under the tedium of the narrative format that comes to seem forced when Hamid comes to seem out of things to say.
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I think this could have been 10x more interesting without the unnecessary "love" story with Erica. Why are you having sex with her when she's clearly not into it? Stooop
A modern Janissary is trained, recruited, embraced by the Empire and then becomes cognizant of what he is doing and chooses another way. Hamid's protagonists are sympathetic, culpable, morally complex and his writing style is clear, earnest and almost whimsical ...
In his Dispatches Hamid recommends reading Antonio Tabucchi Pereira Declares. The influence is obvious, another reluctant protagonist, another clear and earnest and almost whimsical style, another very serious world situation.
It is such a coincidence that I just happened to read my first Camus - The Fall - and the influence was so clear that I had not even read that Hamid said that he took The Fall as his model.
I have one more novel of Hamid's to read - How to Get Filthy Rich - I am looking forward to more of his work!
In his Dispatches Hamid recommends reading Antonio Tabucchi Pereira Declares. The influence is obvious, another reluctant protagonist, another clear and earnest and almost whimsical style, another very serious world situation.
It is such a coincidence that I just happened to read my first Camus - The Fall - and the influence was so clear that I had not even read that Hamid said that he took The Fall as his model.
I have one more novel of Hamid's to read - How to Get Filthy Rich - I am looking forward to more of his work!