The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the story of a young man, named Changez who tells his life story, over a nightlong conversation with a never-named American man. The story is set in a café in Lahore, Pakistan and Changez’s words are engaging and articulate, as he speaks of his life as a Pakistani in a suspicious, terrorism-altered world.
The novel is brief, as the narrative is a constant, almost one-sided conversation over the course of a night. The reader is addressed as ‘you’ as Changez addresses the anonymous American as such. With this strategy, the reader takes on the persona of the American gentleman who is presumed to be a secret agent or businessman, though his intentions and reasons for being in Lahore are never made clear. Over the course of cups of tea, snacks and an evening meal, the American and Changez seemingly bond, over Changez’s life during the years he lived in America. The novel is interspersed almost constantly with snapshots of Lahore life, the comings and goings of people through the teashop, and the street outside.
Changez tells the story of how he arrived in America as an international student of Princeton University, where he studies for a business degree and graduates with honours, nearly the top of his class. Changez becomes a successful valuation consultant at top valuations firm Underwood Samson. On a celebratory vacation in Greece, Changez meets and falls in love with a young girl named Erica. Erica, however, is still mourning the loss of her long-time sweetheart Chris, who succumbed to his lung cancer a year earlier. Returning to New York, Changez becomes accustomed to working life, and works with enthusiasm, leagues above the other trainees, all the while remaining close friends with Erica, visitin...
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...his job at Underwood Samson.
After being fired from his job, Changez is forced to leave America and returns to his home in Lahore, where he meets the anonymous American. As the evening draws to a close, Changez offers to walk ‘you’ back to ‘your’ hotel. Along the way he explains that he is now a university lecturer at a local university in Lahore, and has become a mentor to his more politically minded students, some of whom have been implicated in recent political riots and violence. It becomes apparent along the walk that the two men have been followed by a group of men from the café, and Changez appears to be involved in a plot with them. The novel ends ambiguously, with the American reaching for something in his jacket, perhaps a business card, as Changez suggests or perhaps a gun with which to kill Changez. It is up to the reader then to decide which it is.
The Changeable nature of life affects us all somehow. Whether it be moving to a new city, having children, or losing people that we love, it can affect people in many different ways. For example, in the novel, the main character Taylor Greer changes her name from Marietta and moves...
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that it is the majority who is truly mad, and not the minority who have been wrongly
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The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a taut and engaging piece of fiction, exploring the growing chasm between the East and the West. Mohsin Hamid has used a rather unique narrative mode- the dramatic monologue –and used it skillfully to weave an account of a young Pakistani’s class aspirations and inner struggle in corporate America. Throughout the novel, Hamid maintains a tense atmosphere, an atmosphere of imminent danger and radical violence. What results from the two devices is an allegorical reconstruction of post-9/11 tensions, and an inflective young man’s infatuation and disenchantment with America.