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librarymouse's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is so easily consumable. Hamid lovingly crafts the story in such a way that the reader is invested and can follow the concurrent past and present story lines with ease. Changez is an incredibly likable character, and getting to know him, flaws and all, through this personal and confessional narration endears him to the reader. This first half of the novel shows an idealized American experience, often inaccessible to those not among the elite. He is on a whirlwind tour on a shoestring budget, attempting to keep up with his peers who don’t know he’s not wealthy. This hidden self is what draws Jim, the interviewer for Underwood Sampson to him, but it soon becomes apparent that what they want is a total destruction of said hidden self. The goal is to exceed expectations and leave one’s roots behind.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist shows the logical progression of Changez’s idealized view of the United States being systematically dismantled and then inversed. In the second half of the novel, Erica’s dissent into herself, and her subsequent death/disappearance are the realization of Changez’s disillusionment and the total decimation of his access to the American dream. Prior to her breakdown, Erica actss his shield in post-9/11 New York, bringing him into the circles of the upper crust and introducing him to that world in a way in which welcoming him was required. She acts as his credibility within the racist and Islamophobic culture that the US became steeped in. She is the combination of the white picket fence, 2.5 kids, marrying your high school sweetheart American dream, and the new metropolitan, affluent, whirlwind adventure, freedom to create, New York American dream. Changez idolizes her, dreaming of how different his life would be if only a large part of what makes her who she is isn’t there. She is a manic pixie dream girl trope whose destruction serves a purpose for the betterment or as a catalyst for the narrator’s self-reflection.
The American Changez is talking to, being implied to kill him/be there to kill him is dotted throughout the novel in lines that place Changez as looking oblivious at first. While Changez keeps the conversation light and friendly for the most part, he alerts the man that he is seeing and understanding exactly what he is doing with his hourly check ins, hesitance to eat local food, and with the gun in his coat. Changez is not a trained soldier nor a militant dissident, but he is aware of the violence around him and aware of the American reaction to himself and his culture in the climate created after 9/11.
This novel brings modern American imperialism and the American military’s self-imposed role as the world’s police into question through a lens not often considered by American audiences. This over policing and overstepping of other cultures creates a power imbalance. The US is working to impose US-specific democratic ideals onto countries deemed dangerous to continue progressing with their own cultures. Changez did what some American professors do, in being a political resource for their students, inciting change and encouraging them to take action to make change. Sometimes, as it did for Changez when a student he’d met with a few times committed an act of politically motivate violence, it backfires, but in the US, a politically active professor would not be assassinated.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Grief
Moderate: Hate crime, Violence, and Xenophobia
janeanger's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Islamophobia
Moderate: War and Suicide
cadybooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Islamophobia
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Colonisation
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