The
Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is an
amazing book, well written and poignant, that tells of a young man
from Pakistan who wins a scholarship to Princeton and then gets a
prestigious job in New York. Set against the backdrop of “9/11”
his career as an analyst discovering the fundamentals of commercial companies
makes him reflect more widely on America and the new world he has
entered and the old world he left behind. It leads him to a crisis
and the rejection of the new world that he had initially embraced.
It
is a subtle and insightful critique of the USA and the post 9/11
foreign policy viewed from a sympathetic observer from another
culture.
The
story is also about boundaries and relationships as there is a
parallel personal narrative of his friendship and love of a
beautiful, but troubled young American woman.
It
is a short book and I found the unusual style of relating the
story a little annoying at first, but I was impressed by the ambiguity
of the ending.
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