The Reluctant Fundementalist or Not?
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
by Mohsin Hamid
I was just passing time in the Waterstones near SOAS when I saw this book. A subconscious compulsion made me reach for the novel and before I realised it, I had purchased it. Even though the title suggest the novel would contain some hard hitting material, I thought it would be a suitable read before bedtime, a novel from which I could read a chapter or two before falling asleep…how wrong was I!!!
I read the entire novel within 4 hours (this did mean it was 2 a.m. by the time I finished.)
To briefly summarise the plot, the novel is told in the first person from the viewpoint of “Changez”, the main protagonist. The novel begins in an outdoor cafe in Lahore, where Changez has befriended an American. To put the American at ease about his apparel, as Changez has a beard, Changez begins to recount his life to the stranger from overseas. He tells him how he graduated from Princeton and preceded to work in a New York firm specialising in ruthless appraisals of ailing companies being targeted for takeover. He admits at this point of his life he felt more akin with his American counterparts than Pakistanis, he even began a “relationship” with an American girl. Then the World Trade Centre attacks occur, plunging him into a crisis over his identity. He is prompted to question his religious and moral beliefs and this questioning leads him to leave his high flying career to return back to Lahore and then the narrative resumes to the present day and…I will not tell you anymore!
The monologue, which constitutes the novel, is a cleverly constructed fable of infatuation and disenchantment with America, tackles the issues of prejudice and misrepresentation very well.
However, I am slightly sceptical of the way the actual idea of fundamentalism is treated within the novel. It seems the author wishes to convey to the American and also the reader, who are being subjected to Changez monologue, that Changez “reluctantly” began to embrace the dark side of Islamic fundamentalism. I am not sure if this is a realistic representation of how a person educated in the “West” would conform, albeit reluctantly, to Islamic fundamentalism. I cannot deny that, for Changez, there are certain elements in his life, such as his disillusionment with America when Afghanistan is invaded and how this affects neighbouring Pakistan (his home country), or the lack of understanding about the situation by his employers and how it affects him, which may turn him to the direction of fundamentalism. But it seems all too neatly executed in the novel for my liking.
Another weakness within the novel is the relationship between Changez and Erica. Personally, I feel that this relationship added nothing to the novel or the plot; it is superfluous in my mind. I gained no greater understanding of the protagonist Changez from his interaction with Erica. The novel did not warrant a “love story” to use the term extremely loosely. Instead, I feel it would have been more realistic to portray him as either celibate, uninterested in women or having casual relationships. The author’s treatment of Erica feels a little sketchy, psychologically: simultaneously over the top and undersubstantiated.
Throughout the novel, it is clear of the tensions between the American and Changez and the ambiguous nature of the ending allows the reader to draw their own conclusions. The reader is shown how Changez has reclaimed his patriotism for Pakistan and how this assertion makes the American uncomfortable.
Despite a few failings, nevertheless I found the novel utterly compelling. The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a testament to its genuinely provocative nature, and it remains, at the very least, an intelligent, highly engaging piece of work. It is a multi-layered and thoroughly gripping book.
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I am an absolute fan of the book and Mohsin Hamid’s writings in general. Thank you for the post – I quite enjoyed reading how you found the book. I do see where you are coming from. I do suggest however, if you read Mohsin Hamid’s ground-breaking novel called MothSmoke which was later turned into both a drama and a movie in Pakistan. The lead character’s infatuation with a woman in that, and in Reluctant Fundamentalist have a lot of parallels. They are both strong women, almost reflecting more strength than the male lead characters in both. It makes me understand where the author is coming from better and I feel like concluding that the author deep down has an infatuation with strong women, opinionated women etc. Lahore is known to be a city which is very almost-chauvinistic in its culture or patriarchal. But I feel like this shows a classic example where culturally the men of a certain thinking like to “suppress” their women even passively, but are also equally infatuated or almost have a fetish of women who can speak for themselves. I am off on a tangent but it is interesting to me who the author is and where he or she comes from in a book.
I would however like to point out that there are several stories like these, real stories or real people, who have had similar endings in life as the author is suggesting and it did ring really close to the hearts of many Pakistani readers.