The Reluctant Fundamentalist

A beautiful story. The novel explores the life of Changez(Gengiz) ,a pakistani who studied and worked in US. He was well paid , had a good relationship with a beautiful girl and pretty much happy with his life until September 11 terrorist attacks.

The best part of the story are 1)  the romance between Changez and Erica 2) the Changez feelings for his home people. Erica was beautiful rich girl who is trying to become a novelist, she had written a novella and sent it to agent .She was unable to come out of her thought of Chris her childhood boy friend .Changez tries his best to bring Erica to normal but he fails and Erica was admitted in a hospital and refuse to see anyone for sometime.Latter he came to know from the hospital staff that Erica never returned after her walk.

He visits his home town in Pakistan and he came to knew the real situation of his family and his people. He loses interest in his work and saddened, he decided to quit the job and do some work in Pakistan itself,latter he became teacher/professor.

Below paragraph taken from the book says so many things to me , this was when Changez visits his hometown for the first time after getting job in America:

"There are adjustments one must make if one comes here from America;a different way of observing is required.I recall the Americanness of my own gaze when i returned to Lahore that winter when war was in the offing, i was struck at first by how shabby  our house appeared, with cracks running through its ceiling and by bubbles of paint flaking off where dampness had entered its walls.The electricity had gone that afternoon, giving the place a gloomy air, but even in the dim light of the hissing gas heaters our furniture appeared dated and in urgent ned of reupholstery and repair.I was saddened to find it in such a state- no, more than saddened, I was shamed. This was where i came from, this was my provenance, and it smacked of lowliness.

But as I reacclimatized and my surroundings once again become familiar, it occurred to me that the house had not changed in my absence. I had changed;I was looking about me with the eyes of a foreigner, and not just any foreigner,but that type of a entitled and unsympathetic  American who so annoyed me when i encountered him in the classrooms and workplaces of your country's elite.This realization angered me, staring at my reflection in the speckled glass of my bathroom mirror I resolved to exorcise the unwelcome sensibility by which I had become possessed."

The narration goes like a thriller,i expected a bit different ending but nevertheless a good one. Overall a good read.

Mohsin Hamid is one of the new generation pakistani writer.He has written 2 novels and many essays in various papers and journals.

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