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The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid


Clive_Higgleton

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  • 2 months later...

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

 

021-2009-Mar-29-TheReluctantFundame.jpg

 

 

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

 

The ‘blurb’

’Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance?



Ah, I see I have alarmed you.

Do not be frightened by my beard

I am a lover of America…”

 

So speaks the mysterious stranger at a Lahore caf

Edited by Janet
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  • 3 months later...

The book is written in first person narrative. The author is speaking directly to you the reader. It is not Stream of Consciousness see James Joyce Ulyssess for example of Stream of Consciousness. Hope this helps

 

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My apologies, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is written in Interior Monologue style. The authors character is speaking to an audience that has access to his thoughts and we draw our own conclusions to the characters interpretation of events. It is still a narrative or fable.

Edited by Michelle
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  • 9 months later...

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

 

After reading A Thousand Splendid Suns I said I would never read another Islamic themed book; but I am glad that this one came my way (I don't remember how...)

It is a very strange and unusual book, it is one character (Changez) telling his story all the way through to a person who's responses are revealed only through things Changez says in his monologue...if you follow me.

That makes the book slightly surreal, but it works so well.

I think a lot of Americans will not like this book and will be unsettled by Changez' view of America and it's financial policies.

However, whether the reader agrees with Changez or not, his viewpoint exists (I have talked with muslims who say the same things) for real and therefore has validity; it is at least as valid as America's own view of itself. There are always two sides to every argument.

Read this book! It will make you think. But it is never boring. :)

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Good review, vodkafan, but for some reason I can't put my finger on, whenever I pick up this book in the bookshop, I never have the compulsion to want to actually read it.

 

There is actually already a thread for this book here if you want to have a look at some other views ;)

 

(I'm sure some nice mod will be along shortly to merge the two threads :))

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I read it last year and i was tricked by the title.

After all, the alledged fundamentalist is not reluctant at all.

 

That is a good point Raskolnikov; Changez is certainly always responsible for his own actions. From the point of view of his employers, it would be said that for whatever reason Changez simply failed to fulfil his potential.

The fate of his girlfriend was neither here nor there and unimportant to the story.

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