Changez is our only source of information here, using language to convey movement and emotion (“Your disgust is evident indeed, your large hand has, perhaps without your noticing, clenched into a fist”).
This strange “dialogue” continues throughout the entire book, without the American ever saying a word. The novel begins unexpectedly with the voice of Changez (pronounced chan-gays), speaking to an American man. His geographic knowledge of Changez’s life is comprehensive, though don’t be tempted to think of this book as autobiographical - Hamid currently lives in London, and has nothing more in common with Changez than knowledge of a few locations. Like central character Changez, he grew up in Lahore, Pakistan, and attended Princeton as an undergraduate. Much of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is based on the reader’s own expectations, knowledge and biases Hamid gives us the actions, we create the motives.ĭespite its slim size, The Reluctant Fundamentalist does not give the impression of a rough, quickly-written “sophomore slump” of a novel in fact, Hamid spent nearly seven years in its making, and as he did with his first novel, Moth Smoke. Was it possible that this novel concluded the way I thought it did? The answer is yes, and in fact, that is exactly how author Mohsin Hamid designed it. I searched for clues throughout the book, analyzing its pages for anything that would shed light on its dramatic and ambiguous ending. A tale for our times that speaks directly to a world that still lives in fear of the ‘other’.At first, I was shocked.
"A wonderfully entertaining and intimate piece of theatre"įollowing three critically-acclaimed sell-out runs, the National Youth Theatre present the Edinburgh debut of Mohsin Hamid’s Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist adapted for stage by Stephanie Street and directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah.ĭrink tea in a Lahore café with Changez, as he traces his journey back from an America gripped with fear and retribution in the wake of 9/11. Overview Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist
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