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A review by peelspls
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
2.0
Pros: The author articulates well and the book is short.
(The rest of this is pretty much the cons)
The book is a story about a person who tried to achieve certain goals in their life and reached somewhat somewhere and then discovered life isn't linear/as planned, which doesn't strike me as an original premise, but I'll take it in a different context, narrative, etc. It ends up being exactly my summary, complete with a romantic subplot that wasn't necessary for the story to be fulfilling. I'd rather read a story about a ruthless tycoon from a difficult childhood, because at least I enjoy strategic plotting and scheming.
The author also uses the second person singular experiment to evoke sympathy when it really sounds like instructions, because that's not how I (the reader) would feel. The author explores this in some depth using the metaphor of a self-help book, and providing meta commentary about it, but sounds heavily prescriptive and incredibly cynical. This offhand cynical tone detracts from the emotional strength of the characters and affects even the description of poverty. Having witnessed and grown up around conditions similar to what the author describes, I would have expected a somewhat more humane rendering, but I suppose that's my city-privilege talking. What I'm saying is I can't relate to a story where people are "assigned" feelings.
Furthermore, even if the protagonist of the story is "you", the text is omniscient. I, the reader, am supposed to know what happened to everyone as opposed to discovering information like I would in real life. I also found it incredibly annoying how the "pretty girl" never ages into a graceful woman throughout the author's lifetime.
Lastly, the Big Plot Twist™ is cheap. A story need not necessarily have an ending at all to be meaningful, or can have an abrupt ending and achieve the same point of the story. But to drag chapters along because I, the reader, am supposed to assume that I have become an unreliable narrator is pushing the envelope on how much of the protagonist persona I'm supposed to embody.
(The rest of this is pretty much the cons)
The book is a story about a person who tried to achieve certain goals in their life and reached somewhat somewhere and then discovered life isn't linear/as planned, which doesn't strike me as an original premise, but I'll take it in a different context, narrative, etc. It ends up being exactly my summary, complete with a romantic subplot that wasn't necessary for the story to be fulfilling. I'd rather read a story about a ruthless tycoon from a difficult childhood, because at least I enjoy strategic plotting and scheming.
The author also uses the second person singular experiment to evoke sympathy when it really sounds like instructions, because that's not how I (the reader) would feel. The author explores this in some depth using the metaphor of a self-help book, and providing meta commentary about it, but sounds heavily prescriptive and incredibly cynical. This offhand cynical tone detracts from the emotional strength of the characters and affects even the description of poverty. Having witnessed and grown up around conditions similar to what the author describes, I would have expected a somewhat more humane rendering, but I suppose that's my city-privilege talking. What I'm saying is I can't relate to a story where people are "assigned" feelings.
Furthermore, even if the protagonist of the story is "you", the text is omniscient. I, the reader, am supposed to know what happened to everyone as opposed to discovering information like I would in real life. I also found it incredibly annoying how the "pretty girl" never ages into a graceful woman throughout the author's lifetime.
Lastly, the Big Plot Twist™ is cheap. A story need not necessarily have an ending at all to be meaningful, or can have an abrupt ending and achieve the same point of the story. But to drag chapters along because I, the reader, am supposed to assume that I have become an unreliable narrator is pushing the envelope on how much of the protagonist persona I'm supposed to embody.