The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

RE: #19

``please leave these brilliant ideas to the professionals for execution.``


Who are these professionals?


Many of us have some good ideas but

writing an article is the best we can do

(and rather poorly in my case).

Successful Pakistani English writers are a rare breed possibly because Urdu

is so powefully rich.

The other writer who I was referring to in my last post came out of the Urdu realm

and in spite of his flaws, he is (in my opinion)

the best South Asian English writer to date.


By the way whatever happened to CHOWK`s temporal?
(We could use his expertise here)

On articles, go to Mohsin Hamid`s website and look for an article he wrote on

Shazia Sikandar. That is one reason I became a fan.

This young man has potential!


Ras

Mohsin Hamid cannot write. He had a partial story to tell in Moth Smoke, which he did. The remaining bits and pieces of his life are shoved onto Changez but he has been more unsuccessful than his protagonist to capture the moment.

Mr. Hamid, I am sure you were a decent consultant. However, it seems you have hit the 2nd novel bump. Hopefully, you can move on because of your loyal following from the 1st novel and actually reward them with some decent prose. Otherwise please leave these brilliant ideas to the professionals for execution.

This 2nd novel needed to be written, but it needed to be written from the cab driver`s perspective. It is really sad that you tried to make it about yourself, and even in that you failed. There is a reason it sometimes takes decades to compose an album or write a novel. You just cannot force inspiration.

RE: #17: I would not be that harsh on either the writer or the American reader.
It is the Pakistani writer that needs to establish a line of communication with
the American reader, not the other way around. And I believe that Mohsin Hamid
has done that here.

RE: #3 : I am happy to note that I was present to see Bapsi Sidhwa promoting
Mohsin Hamid`s work at a Silicon Valley gathering a few years ago. I think that she
would like to see more Pakistani writers of English novels emerge.

RE: #5: I would like to renew Nadeem Aslam`s work. You can reach me at
my home email at: rsiddiqui@surewest.net if you have some of his work to share.

Re:#11: Have not heard from you in a while. Pakistani Restaurants are improving in Sacramento. We have a Mehran now and more coming.

RE: #14: I like the work of both Hanif Kureshi and Ayub Khan Din but I do not want the brickbats to start at my window for reviewing them (just kidding!).

ALL: The main reason why I went to the bookreading is that I enjoyed Moth Smoke
and frankly it is not every day that a Pakistani fiction writer makes it to any Bestseller List
here in the US. I also found Mohsin Hamid to be a pleasant person with social skills
unlike another a-hol-e that I met before he really got famous by selling his verses...

Ras

I found Moth Smoke interesting because it was about Lahore and by a writer of Pakistani origin even though the plot was contrived, insights superficial and the prose laboured.

Still, I was looking forward to the Reluctant Fundamentalist. I had thought the writer might have matured into something more solid and deeper than what was on display in MS. But I am thoroughly disappointed. MH has evolved into a more contrived, more superficial and more laboured writer. The issues that the RF attempts to address are huge. Yet, we find a very superficial, very incomplete treatment of them....whether it is 9/11 or the protagonist`s internal (and some external) metamorphosis or the love affair (Erica conveniently disappears.....easily disposed of....no need to bother with anything deeper....no need to construct a plot in which things come to logical or natural conclusions).

The setting itself, (an American in a suit, all by himself, in a cafe (?) in Anarkali Bazaar ???????) is utterly ridiculous whether you have a magical realist`s license or a poet`s license or both together. The convenient tool employed to tell this story i.e the protagonist`s monologue is simply boring and unimaginative (though Princeton, he speaks Oxbridge). I think that this may well be this writer`s last book because it seems he neither has a genuine story in him to tell nor a point of view. The only remarkable thing he does is that he manages to make even a 112 page novel (paperback) boring and repetitive. As to why it is selling in the US: its called the ``Reluctant Fundamentalist``, talks about 9/11, is by a Pakistani and because Americans are stupid.

Re: # 15
madni sahab
i am of the view that oppresssion causes people to become fundamentalist, whether in kashmir or palestine.

regards

Re: # 14
I do not find arjun and Indians commenting as novel has left indians writers as poor third rate writers.
If america does not behave properly with our country all pakistanis will become reluctant extremists. Time has come to tell america to solve Kashmir problem as Clinton had promised when India was saved by usa by forcing withdrawal from Kargil , tell america that we want to cash kashmir promise or expect no logistical support for war in A.Stan. America is making mistake by not standing to their own words. It appears new game plan is to install bb and president and make dependant both on usa and drive wedge between china and Pakistan. just all imoral american ways. There is moral to this novel so it has got prize from newyork times.

it is a great achievement to have one`s work published especially in english because there is so much competition, i`ve been told for every one that gets published at least 100 are turned down. there is at least a dozen south asian writers in uk, of the well known is hanif kureshi nearly all his novels have been made into films, buddha of surburbia, my son the fanatic,mother etc. then there is meera syal she`s an actress as well as novelist. monica ali a bengali her novel brick lane won critical acclaim. then there is ayub khan din an actor as well as a playwright his film east is east earned millions around the world.

For another report on Mohsin Hamid`s visit (including pictures) please see

http://www.pakistanlink.com/Community/2007/April07/27/02.HTM


Ras

Both Barnes and Noble and Borders sent out an email intro to MH`s new initiative last month. That was interesting. I guess it will be a while for me to look into this one.

It is good storytelling. Has the MH trademark `futility` element as an undercurrent running throughout the tale. Despite the 3 hours of explanation, there is enough left unsaid so that intentions and reasons maintain sufficient ambiguity giving the conclusion a tragic flavor.

Correction: ``The Reluctant Fundamentalist`` is now No. 4 on the NYT List.

IT is a great read. The title is a play on words. The protaganist is an analyst that provides valuations for companies, his boss always tells him ``focus on the fundamentals``. Eventually he is reluctant to carry on with his gig of focusing on the fundamentals. Hence reluctant fundamentalist.

Once you get used to the ``half conversation style``, it is really good. It is indeed a love story. The protaganist is who he is, and is not totally justifying his reactions either. IT is not a US=bad type of deal. It is more complex and layered.

I really enjoyed the love story between Erica and Changez (or single sided love story), it is written very well, and expressed in subtleties.

One of the things that drives Changez to reexamine himself (other then his non-reciprocal love for Erica, 9/11, and him growing a beard) is when a guy`e company he is assessing says to him....

actually I shouldn`t write that part, it will be giving too much of the story away. Do read. Very interesting.

thanks for this. i saw it in a bookstore and picked it up and then put it down again after reading the first few pages. seemed interesting but too obvious. and hamid is a good writer but not a prose stylist.

i will probably read it at some point in the near future though...

i agree with the person who said nadeem aslam is the best pakistani writer at the moment--i would say best desi writer in english. full stop--a prose writer par excellence (until my novel is finished...!!!) but i would put suhayl saadi -- a scottish paki--right up there with him. his novel
psychoraag is brilliant.

hamid m and kamila shamsie are okay writers.

Kullhare has stolen by thoughts as well; you are not alone

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He has a good potential for ýsure, needs to polish up and join the league or become league of his own.ý

Re: # 3 I read this book, just as I had the first one Moth smoke. My thunder has been stolen by Kulharee.
Nevertheless, I must say this - when I read moth smoke first time round it was good, I enjoyed it since it related to me like a desi would. The second time round, there was some good moth smoke floating around the book made even more sense then.

This new one is interesting...but I sense a certain formulaic nature to it...cannot really put my hands to it....

Mohsin Hamid is a talented writer........unlike most Pakistani writers, writing in English, he can actually write.......One can clearly notice it in his first book........I would rank Nadeem Aslam as the outright best writer of Pakistani origin.......Head and Shoulders above the rest......He is in the potential Booker category with the likes of Rushdie, Seth, Arundhati etc.......

After Nadeem Aslam, there is a big gap, then comes Mohsin Hamid.........After him there is another big gap, then comes Kamila Shamsie.........After her, there is a gigantic gap, and then come the rest of the writers of Pakistani origin.........Haven`t read too much of Hanif Kureshi, so he might fit in with Mohsin Hamid and Kamila.........

Nearly every other writer of Pakistani origin`s biggest accomplishment is getting published (and being Pakistani and getting published)..........This include Bapsi Sidwa and the various others (most of whom happen to be females, for some reason)........

On the whole, Pakistani English fiction writing is quite mediocre.........Mohsin and Nadeem (and Kamila) being the exceptions........All three are very young (by writer standards).......So they have a bright future ahead of them.........Unfortunately, Nadeem Aslam has written two books............And took ten years to write his last one.........