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| The Reluctant Fundamentalist | 
 enlarge | Author: Mohsin Hamid
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £2.87
You Save: £5.12 (64%)
New (24) from £2.87
Avg. Customer Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 427
Media: Paperback
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141029544
EAN: 9780141029542
ASIN: 0141029544
Publication Date: April 24, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW - ***Delivery usually * 2 - 3 * working days - From Aphrohead of SOUTHPORT, Lancs, UK *** . Priority Airmail used Worldwide on International orders. Thanks from all at Aphrohead.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Brilliant introspective of a repented Jannissary June 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
At the end of this book you may be left with a bitter taste in your mouth, with the sensation that the climax of the novel was not completely fulfilled.
However it is certain that a so-called Western person is left with a little better grasp of the Pakistani culture and way of seeing, and with a little (this time only a little) better understandment of the drive to fundamentalism that the 9/11 attacks provoked.
The key of reading of this book is surely not an extended interpretation of Changez's story, cause that might leave you disappointed lately. I believe you should in fact look at the narrator's story as an almost isolate case, deep and intelligent, but still an individual's story.
A definite plus for this novel is Changez's aristocratic, maniacally studied and careful choice of words and way of recounting to his American fellow this beautiful story of infatuation and desenchantment with the American culture. His frequent digressions about Pakistani culture are a great diversification for what could be a pretty "heavy" reading.
All in all a great reading, suggested to anyone who's interested in deepening a little more in the psychology of fundamentalism and the relativism of today's world.
Who is the Reluctant Fundamentalist? The Underwood Samson's Changez who must "Focus on fundamentals" to get his job done, or the Lahore's Changez, a man who manages to get back to his land's fundamentals?
 Unusual but good June 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I didn't have any preconceptions about what this book should or shouldn't be. I found the narrative style refreshing if unusual. To me, it is one man's story of how he became disillusioned with the world he was living in and the things that led him to question his values. Like some of the other reviewers, I did feel at times that I was waiting for a big revelation. However, maybe that is the author's skill in keeping the reader hooked. I didn't feel that the fact there was no big revelation a disappointment. It is a quick read which is thought provoking in places. I loved it.
 Great story, pity the narrative is so annoying June 15, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
An international bestseller that has been translated into some 16 languages, The Reluctant Fundamentalist has also been shortlisted for a host of literary awards including the Man Booker Prize 2007, the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2007 and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2008. But it has also attracted much flak centered around its alleged anti-American stance (it's no plot spoiler to say that the main character smiles when he sees the collapse of the World Trade Towers on TV, pleased because "someone had so visibly brought America to her knees").
In my opinion, this is shallow criticism, because the book's greatest failing is not its content, but the way in which the story is narrated. This is a fictional account of a young, intelligent and ambitious Pakistani who is educated at Princeton University and secures a highly desirable job in New York. When he falls in love with a troubled rich white girl he begins to realise that her material trappings cannot alleviate her pain. Then, following the attacks on the World Trade Centre, when the entire city is in mourning, he begins to question the purpose of his own life and the Western values that leave him feeling so cold, detached and unfulfilled. He returns to Lahore, and it is here that his story begins: a first-person narrative that is addressed to an unseen acquaintance (effectively you, the reader) in a little cafe as dusk descends.
It is this narrative device that I found particularly troublesome. The tone of the voice is cool, arrogant and slightly menacing, which is fine. But every now and then the narrative flow is interrupted by rather clunky direct addresses to the unseen acquaintance -- "But observe! A flower seller approaches. I will summon him to our table. You are not in the mood? Surely you cannot object to a single strand of jasmine buds." -- which act as unwanted reminders that you are reading a book which means you can never fully lose yourself in the story.
This is a great shame, because it's a good story about an issue not much discussed in popular literature, that of the foreign man who's turned his back on the American dream. If nothing else it's a thought-provoking read and would certainly make great fodder for a book group discussion, but on the whole I found The Reluctant Fundamentalist disappointing and nowhere near as exciting or as provocative as I had been lead to believe. And the conclusion, which is as predictable as they come, left me feeling like I'd been terribly short-changed.
 fundamental plod! June 10, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Not half as good as you are led to believe with all the hype. I kept waiting for the story to take off but it never did. All in all a fundamental plod!
Easy reading with so many subtile in-depth analysis June 10, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was very pleasantly surprised that such an "easy reading" can be a delicate analysis of a modern American society. It is also a very good comparison between two different worlds that collide by accident and what I admire is the fact that no qualifier adjective has been used in order to depict either of the two cultures. It is rather the plot that gives a remarkable difference in the way of thinking and living, while giving the possibility to reader to make its own opinion which one of two is better suited for his/her living. Nonetheless, it is a sharp critic of American society and its values but put in a discourse that does not imply that it has to be by default a bad thing. Simply amazing!
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