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A review by lanternatomika
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
2.0
Chapter One: Recognize When A Novel Format Isn't Working
This is a review. A review is an assessment of the quality of craft or effectiveness of performance of a subject. But in a manner of thinking, we are always engaged in an appraisal of something or the other, whether we're evaluating something our eyes see or our ears hear, whether we're processing our position on how something tastes or smells, or even when we feel the touch of a lover and conclude conclusively that we would like to feel that touch for the rest of our lives. In this sense, one may say that our entire lives are comprised of a series of reviews, and in another sense, one may say that a book whose every chapter opens with a paragraph like this gets rather infuriating
The novel How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia purports to present a narrative in the form and structure of a self-help book, but it is evident from the very start that the author, its famed author, was unsuccessful in this cross-adaptation of format. One may suggest that grafting a fictional narrative onto a non-fictional self-help format is a futile exercise, and whether you agree or disagree with this notion, the fact is that the only thing HTGFRIRA has in common with self-help books is a pretentious and know-it-all style of writing that seems to say that, in order to get rich in Asia, you must be the third son of a village family that moves to the city and so on. It presents the particular experiences of a single (fictional) individual as a formula for getting rich, which is disingenuous on part of the author
Chapter Two: Plot Matters A Lot
In a review, you cannot dismiss a work out of hand purely on the basis of one of its qualities. A more comprehensive and analytical review may lead to a conclusion that the other characteristics of a work can outweigh the one characteristic that strikes you most annoying. In the case of a book like HTGFRIRA, it may be possible for the plot to make up for the shortcomings of the format
However, HTGFRIRA has a fairly weak plot as well, and one may deliberate on the extent to which the format chosen by the author compromised the quality of the plot. For instance, since the experiences of the protagonist and other characters are meant to be viewed as self-help advice, no characters or locations are named in this novel, which is a dangerous proposition in and of itself as names are the first means by which humans build attachment to other animate and inanimate beings. But the level of coldness engendered by the lack of names spreads throughout the tale, its events relayed with a cold and disaffected manner that makes all of it seem meaningless
When you reflect on this book in hindsight, you may think that nothing happened in this book, that it was just a collection of twelve vignettes from the life of some schmuck who succeeded in becoming modestly successful (not, as the book may suggest, filthy rich) at selling water, but this isn't the case. The book actually contains a few minor twists, a couple of major ones and some sociopolitical commentary on the society and culture of the unnamed nation that couldn't possibly be Pakistan no way no how. All of this has the background radiation of potential lurking throughout, but the author's insistence on this format and all of its caveats serves to damn the book. Allow me to express it thusly: it is not difficult to power through a book that's under 300 pages long, but the author really tried my patience on this one
Chapter Three: The Verdict
I'm gonna break from my satirical take on this novel's writing style to say that, as my first Mohsin Hamid read, I'm not going to dismiss the guy's work entirely. He has some solid insight and a Khalid Hosseini quality to him that may show better when he isn't attempting an experiment with a book. But I don't know, I have to say that this one is a hard pass from me
This is a review. A review is an assessment of the quality of craft or effectiveness of performance of a subject. But in a manner of thinking, we are always engaged in an appraisal of something or the other, whether we're evaluating something our eyes see or our ears hear, whether we're processing our position on how something tastes or smells, or even when we feel the touch of a lover and conclude conclusively that we would like to feel that touch for the rest of our lives. In this sense, one may say that our entire lives are comprised of a series of reviews, and in another sense, one may say that a book whose every chapter opens with a paragraph like this gets rather infuriating
The novel How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia purports to present a narrative in the form and structure of a self-help book, but it is evident from the very start that the author, its famed author, was unsuccessful in this cross-adaptation of format. One may suggest that grafting a fictional narrative onto a non-fictional self-help format is a futile exercise, and whether you agree or disagree with this notion, the fact is that the only thing HTGFRIRA has in common with self-help books is a pretentious and know-it-all style of writing that seems to say that, in order to get rich in Asia, you must be the third son of a village family that moves to the city and so on. It presents the particular experiences of a single (fictional) individual as a formula for getting rich, which is disingenuous on part of the author
Chapter Two: Plot Matters A Lot
In a review, you cannot dismiss a work out of hand purely on the basis of one of its qualities. A more comprehensive and analytical review may lead to a conclusion that the other characteristics of a work can outweigh the one characteristic that strikes you most annoying. In the case of a book like HTGFRIRA, it may be possible for the plot to make up for the shortcomings of the format
However, HTGFRIRA has a fairly weak plot as well, and one may deliberate on the extent to which the format chosen by the author compromised the quality of the plot. For instance, since the experiences of the protagonist and other characters are meant to be viewed as self-help advice, no characters or locations are named in this novel, which is a dangerous proposition in and of itself as names are the first means by which humans build attachment to other animate and inanimate beings. But the level of coldness engendered by the lack of names spreads throughout the tale, its events relayed with a cold and disaffected manner that makes all of it seem meaningless
When you reflect on this book in hindsight, you may think that nothing happened in this book, that it was just a collection of twelve vignettes from the life of some schmuck who succeeded in becoming modestly successful (not, as the book may suggest, filthy rich) at selling water, but this isn't the case. The book actually contains a few minor twists, a couple of major ones and some sociopolitical commentary on the society and culture of the unnamed nation that couldn't possibly be Pakistan no way no how. All of this has the background radiation of potential lurking throughout, but the author's insistence on this format and all of its caveats serves to damn the book. Allow me to express it thusly: it is not difficult to power through a book that's under 300 pages long, but the author really tried my patience on this one
Chapter Three: The Verdict
I'm gonna break from my satirical take on this novel's writing style to say that, as my first Mohsin Hamid read, I'm not going to dismiss the guy's work entirely. He has some solid insight and a Khalid Hosseini quality to him that may show better when he isn't attempting an experiment with a book. But I don't know, I have to say that this one is a hard pass from me