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A review by milandeep
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
5.0
Please do not get fooled by the title of the book 'How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia.' It may sound like self- help, but it is a brilliant short novel written in second person by Mohsin Hamid. Every chapter begins as a parody of a self-help book but quickly moves on to the main story. The name of the chapters can vary from "Learn From a Master,” “Don’t Fall in Love” to “Be Prepared to Use Violence”. Every chapter is about a new phase of life of ‘you.’ The book speaks to 'you' which seemed a bit unsettling in the beginning but as the story progresses, I begin to like the 'you' of the author.
It’s a story of a nameless protagonist living in a nameless country in Asia (no doubt Pakistan) who rises from poverty to become filthy rich by selling bottled water. None of the characters in the novel have names but they are likeable. There is little dialogue, but you get to know what the characters are thinking. The story has gaps when it goes from one chapter to another and you need to fill those gaps as you read on. It’s a story of human life, of love, of family, of corruption and a great desire to get rich. But mainly about ambition and love.
Hamid's prose is beautiful with a disarming sense of humor. Take an example, when negotiating for a government contract with a bureaucrat: You are his buyer, and though you must not squeeze, you have him by his enormous, greedy and extremely useful balls. You haggle, but magnanimously. Mohsin Hamid is certainly one of the most gifted writers of our generation and this is so far the best novel that I've read in 2013. I've not read his previous two books which I've already bought promptly and will be reading soon.
It’s a story of a nameless protagonist living in a nameless country in Asia (no doubt Pakistan) who rises from poverty to become filthy rich by selling bottled water. None of the characters in the novel have names but they are likeable. There is little dialogue, but you get to know what the characters are thinking. The story has gaps when it goes from one chapter to another and you need to fill those gaps as you read on. It’s a story of human life, of love, of family, of corruption and a great desire to get rich. But mainly about ambition and love.
Hamid's prose is beautiful with a disarming sense of humor. Take an example, when negotiating for a government contract with a bureaucrat: You are his buyer, and though you must not squeeze, you have him by his enormous, greedy and extremely useful balls. You haggle, but magnanimously. Mohsin Hamid is certainly one of the most gifted writers of our generation and this is so far the best novel that I've read in 2013. I've not read his previous two books which I've already bought promptly and will be reading soon.