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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
A short book of internal conflict where you can't help but find yourself relating to the main character and his twenty something life crisis caught in the turmoil of 9/11. I liked the main character but I wish he was able to present more flaws about himself instead of seeming like someone of so much caution. Also, a little more world building would be nice, although the lack of it lead the book to have more of a fantasy aspect.
A critic at America. Posed as a one part of a conversation between a Pakistani and an American man we see an immigrant fell in an out of love with his new country. This story is against the backdrop of 9/11 and the events following.
Unique narrative style that really captivated me, genuinely something I haven't read before. I love the flow of the story, it's breezy during the day and colder and oppressive the later it gets. What an impressive insight into being torn, a sense of (not) belonging, a globalised world and the repercussions of big nation's actions rippling through communities far away.
Quick but powerful. Despite the title, this is a call for pacifism of sorts. It is also a call to recognize one's own privilege—the luxury of even a basic standard of living in America (and the blind luxury of peace on one's homeland, for that matter). Hamid writes in a way to make the reader both uneasy and sympathetic—the narrator feels at once foreign and intimate. A story told through an imagined dialog, he provokes a series of discomfiting questions in the minds of his readers. How do we value life? How does our willingness to turn a blind eye to America's interference in foreign affairs—especially those in the Middle East—in order to safeguard our own sense of comfort amongst all our material riches impact not just the rest of the world, but our own lives—our own sense of reality and values? Especially in the wake of the recent US elections, this should be required reading for anyone who wishes to consider themselves unsheltered and "engaged" with the rest of the world.
Very interesting delivery - the entire dialogue is that of the narrator, speaking to a fellow customer at his local bistro in Lahore, Pakistan. Lots to unpack — allegory, metaphor, symbolism and the ending is wide open for conjecture.
gorgeous evocative writing, fascinating way of telling a story, very inciteful criticisms of america, however the ending was so meh
Hamid's novel, while slim, is not an "easy" read because it asks us to confront our own prejudices about the immigrant experience in light of the events of 9/11 and the national security state in which we live. Raised in Lahore, Pakistan, the narrator Changez takes advantage of an Ivy League education to launch a high-powered career in finance, evaluating the fundamentals of corporations about to be swallowed by other corporations. He falls for a fellow student and his love for Erica begins to parallel his American experience; she seems to want him, but cannot commit because her heart is elsewhere. The events of 9/11 conspire with his ill-fated romance to throw his U.S. life in a new light.