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ellafw's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I think I need to read this one again sometime. It had some unexpected twists.
I didn't like being referred to as a wall street white man but it did make the story interesting
I didn't like being referred to as a wall street white man but it did make the story interesting
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
tshepiso's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I knew from the first chapter of The Reluctant Fundamentalist that I probably wasn’t going to enjoy it. The overwrought and alienating second person and blatant misogyny present from the start immediately put a bad taste in my mouth. Unfortunately, the shackles of required reading forced me to continue with this book well after I was ready to toss it into the ocean.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is an introspective novella told in the second person from the perspective of a disillusioned Pakistani, Changez to a mysterious American in the streets of Lahore. Changez whisks the reader (unwittingly in my case) to his early twenties and his life as a hopeful post-grad entering the lucrative work of fiscal analysis in New York City. The story explores his relationship with America as a Pakistani migrant through his tumultuous love affair with a former classmate Erica, and his high stakes job in corporate finance.
The most initially off-putting element of this novel was its use of second-person narration. Mohsin Hamid puts the reader into the shoes of a mysterious American man. Through Changez’s probing questions and inference the reader is forced into the position of a stereotypical American patriot in the mid-aughts. This style was likely intentionally disarming and discomfiting and while I can understand why Hamid made the choices he did it doesn’t take away from how alienating doing so made the novel feel. This was a book that felt so specifically written for Bush-era white Americans and as someone so far removed from that perspective, the constant narrow focus on them made this novel feel limited. While having a narrow scope isn’t inherently wrong it did mean there was a distance between me and the narrative that lessened its potential impact.
Even more egregious than the second person was the misogyny dripping from every page of this book. Changez’s relationship with Erica was troubling at best and actively horrifying at its grossest. Changez’s obsession not with being with Erica, but possessing her was abundantly clear from her first scene. Changez misogyny was not subtle; from the way he ogles her body, to his fetishistic view of her mental illness. Being shackled to the perspective of a man who cares so little about the woman he ‘loves’ as a person (with little to no self-reflection of that) was horrifying and every scene about or including Erica was infuriating. I think the most revolting aspect of this part of the book was how Erica’s clinical depression was so often treated as a metaphor or a quirky personality trait. Changez’s complete inability to see Erica as an individual who existed outside of his desire to be with her was maddening. I do have to warn that half-way through this book there is a graphic sex scene that while technically consensual, employs a level of vomit-inducing manipulation that it felt more akin to rape than anything else.
This is a novel that asks a lot of the reader. Hamid’s story is very much up to interpretation and every chapter asks you to question the reliability of the narrator and the purpose of the story. I can see how many find this investigative element engaging and it makes for ripe essay fodder, but I didn’t feel any drive to try and parse meaning from any given line in this story. While trying to find the multiple interpretations of a story may be fun for some, for me it felt trite and pointless.
At this point, I’ve been to several seminars and read various essays about this novel, so I can appreciate the literary merit of Hamid’s work. However, the type of story Hamid was trying to write fundamentally wasn’t for me. I gained very little from reading it. This kind of introspective novel requires a level of personal fulfilment and understanding to be truly enjoyed the work. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any of that.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Mental illness, and Hate crime
madde's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Mental illness, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
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