Reviews - The Reluctant Fundamentalist

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

1.95k reviews for:

I think this book needed to be read in one sitting, as it was (in my case). There is a tenseness, an uneasiness, that makes it difficult to stop midway. Hamid's conversation with the stranger is, indeed, a conversation with the reader and is deeply personal while still feeling very foreign. Having recently finished and discussed 'Between The World And Me,' my inability to really put myself in the shoes of someone else whose experiences I cannot ever share continues to haunt me. Try as we may, empathy is often elusive even as we strive to embrace it. This story (though the book is a decade old) is unfortunately current and relevant. We are all guilty of profiling....

sabrena_rose's review against another edition

4.5

funny informative reflective 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: Complicated

It was well-written, engaging, and very interesting.”

kris_mccracken's review against another edition

4.0

A decent little page turner, albeit one in which I felt slightly let down by the denouement (I won't spoil it here). It's told in the first person, which is a tricky approach, but one in which Hamid does very well.

There is a seamlessness to which the author weaves a vivid picture of global disharmony, and our narrator's tortured journey is one that explores ideology and emotion, the political and the personal in very convincing ways. It's not hard to see why this is has been a divisive book (especially for American readers), but it offers great rewards for the reflective reader.

Worth the effort.

mattdube's review against another edition

4.0

I liked this short novel, though not as much as I liked Exit West. I won't be the first person to describe its structure-- a long monologue delivered to a reluctant listener-- as being like the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, though in Colerdige's poem, the mariner is compelled by his situation to tell all and he gets some degree of expiation for doing it. Hamid's narrator is somewhat less motivated, even though his story of his life in finance and his failed romance and return to Pakistan is interesting (if maybe a little dated?). The general purposeless drift of the novel, the ambiguity of its ending, makes me wonder if there were other titles considered for this book, and what it might read like with a different title.

It's sharp and well-observed, mostly. I thought the Erica plot left something to be desired; I think the relationship at the heart of Exit West was a lot more interesting, so bravo for progress on that front. But this is a really well-written, cracking short novel.

narpetcards's review against another edition

3.75

reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

kaylinwriter14's review against another edition

4.0

3.5 Stars

Honestly, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this at all if I hadn’t read it for a class. This opens a lot of discussion and there really IS a lot to unpack here.

But it also slams you over the head with the symbolism??

(Your girlfriend am-Erica can’t accept you until you assimilate and pretend to be someone else? You come to resent the unforgiving firm you work at with its U.S. initials??)

(RTC maybe probably not)