The Reluctant Fundamentalist: Amazon.de: Mohsin Hamid: Englische Bücher

Amazon.com

Mohsin Hamid's first novel, Moth Smoke, dealt with the confluence of personal and political themes, and his second, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, revisits that territory in the person of Changez, a young Pakistani. Told in a single monologue, the narrative never flags. Changez is by turns naive, sinister, unctuous, mildly threatening, overbearing, insulting, angry, resentful, and sad. He tells his story to a nameless, mysterious American who sits across from him at a Lahore cafe. Educated at Princeton, employed by a first-rate valuation firm, Changez was living the American dream, earning more money than he thought possible, caught up in the New York social scene and in love with a beautiful, wealthy, damaged girl. The romance is negligible; Erica is emotionally unavailable, endlessly grieving the death of her lifelong friend and boyfriend, Chris.

Changez is in Manila on 9/11 and sees the towers come down on TV. He tells the American, "...I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased... I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees..." When he returns to New York, there is a palpable change in attitudes toward him, starting right at immigration. His name and his face render him suspect.

Ongoing trouble between Pakistan and India urge Changez to return home for a visit, despite his parents' advice to stay where he is. While there, he realizes that he has changed in a way that shames him. "I was struck at first by how shabby our house appeared... I was saddened to find it in such a state... This was where I came from... and it smacked of lowliness." He exorcises that feeling and once again appreciates his home for its "unmistakable personality and idiosyncratic charm." While at home, he lets his beard grow. Advised to shave it, even by his mother, he refuses. It will be his line in the sand, his statement about who he is. His company sends him to Chile for another business valuation; his mind filled with the troubles in Pakistan and the U.S. involvement with India that keeps the pressure on. His work and the money he earns have been overtaken by resentment of the United States and all it stands for.

Hamid's prose is filled with insight, subtly delivered: "I felt my age: an almost childlike twenty-two, rather than that permanent middle-age that attaches itself to the man who lives alone and supports himself by wearing a suit in a city not of his birth." In telling of the janissaries, Christian boys captured by Ottomans and trained to be soldiers in the Muslim Army, his Chilean host tells him: "The janissaries were always taken in childhood. It would have been far more difficult to devote themselves to their adopted empire, you see, if they had memories they could not forget." Changez cannot forget, and Hamid makes the reader understand that--and all that follows. --Valerie Ryan

A Conversation with Mohsin Hamid

Set in modern-day Pakistan, Mohsin Hamid's debut novel, Moth Smoke, went on to win awards and was listed as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His bold new novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, is a daring, fast-paced monologue of a young Pakistani man telling his life story to a mysterious American stranger. It's a controversial look at the dark side of the American Dream, exploring the aftermath of 9/11, international unease, and the dangerous pull of nostalgia. Amazon.com senior editor Brad Thomas Parsons shared an e-mail exchange with Mohsin Hamid to talk about his powerful new book

Read the Amazon.com Interview with Mohsin Hamid

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Presented in the form of a monologue, which is a difficult technique to manage in a novel because the author has to ensure plausibility while guarding against monotony, Hamid's second novel succeeds so well it begs the question--what other narrative format than a sustained monologue could have been as appropriate? Generally, this is a 9/11 novel or, rather, a post-9/11 one. But to see it on its own terms, which, because of its distinctive scenario, is impossible not to do, it eludes categorization. A young Pakistani man, educated at Princeton and employed in a highly prestigious financial-analysis firm in New York, was about to start a brilliant career and had fallen for a young woman whose commitment to him, it must be admitted, was partial and elusive when the terrorist attacks occurred. Answering to his own conscience, he could not remain in the U.S. By the pull of his true personal identity, he must return to Pakistan, despite his reluctance to leave the enigmatic but beguiling young woman behind. From the perspective of a few years later, the young man relates his American experiences to an American man he meets in a cafe, whose visit to Lahore may or may not have to do with the young man's recent anti-American activities. This novel's firm, steady, even beautiful voice proclaims the completeness of the soul when personal and global issues are conjoined. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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6 von 6 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Strange but good 20. M�rz 2007

Von Avid Reader

Format:Taschenbuch

This short novel draws you in right from the start which is due to a) the clever narrative that uses a first-person narrator addressing an unspecified American person, so there is lots of "you's" b) the charmingly old-fashioned style/vocabulary. The narrator seems a very likeable young man and so you begin to wonder what could ever turn him into the person mentioned in the title. I'm still not sure whether Hamid actually made that clear and the ending is not really helpful, but the pleasure of reading made up for these shortcomings. There is also an interesting lovestory with someone from America whose name is Erika ... This novel might actually make a good read for students in the Oberstufe, if you can live with the ending.

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6 von 7 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Up's and down's 21. April 2008

Von Roland Freisitzer TOP 500 REZENSENT

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

The idea, which starts off "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is indeed brilliant, a man takes a seat at another man's table and starts telling him his story. A story of his Princeton studies, of a love lost to a dead man and of the professional possibilities in the United States, given at first and left unused by himself as an indirect result of the September 11th events. The novel evolves well and is beautifully written. My main objection is, that at that "one" moment when you expect to be finally elevated into the "why's and what's" level of the plot, I had the feeling that the author had a sudden urge to finish his novel. Of course, this is a subjective feeling and maybe wrong. Anyway, I felt that there were too many crucial open points for me after closing this book and with all respect to open endings, this one left me quite unhappy. What I personally also could not really identify, was the fundamentalism of the narrator. A good read, a remarkable talent of a writer, but no masterpiece. I do think that there will be really great novels coming by Mohsin Hamid. This one promises them. That is the reason for my 4 stars.

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An elegant, artful and thoroughly gripping novel 12. Dezember 2009

Von papillon

"I am a lover of America" These are the words with which the young Pakistani narrator, Changez, begins the unsettling novel "A Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid.

The novel takes place during the course of a single evening in a Lahore cafe, where Changez tells a nervous, mysterious American stranger about his "love affair" with America and his moment of crisis over his own identity.
Born in Pakistan, educated at Princeton, currently the hottest new employee at a New York finance firm and falling in love with a young American woman, Changez seems to live a pleasant life. However, his warm feelings for his adopted homeland cool after 9/11, when America's wrath turns toward his homeland. Torn between two cultures, Changez' fear of his origin country's future, finally seems to be more important than money, power and success,...

To sum up the novel, written in the form of a monologue, is a quietly told, cleverly constructed fable of infatuation and disenchantment with America, set on prejudice and misinterpretation of current east/west relations.It is a very well-written, thoughtful book, that deserves a thoughtful, considered read!