Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mohsin Hamid's second book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, has gotten rave reviews, won a lot of awards and even been nominated for the 2007 Man Booker prize. There are a lot of reviews and opinions online and I don't really want to repeat and reinforce what has already been said and take up some more bytes in the virtual space. I want to put forth some thoughts about the protagonist, Changez.

The story of Changez and his move from Pakistan to US and back is narrated in this book as a monologue. Changez meets an American visiting Lahore and ends up telling him the story of his life, the impact the 9/11 attack had on him and how it eventually lead him to come back to his country. Even as Changez started his narration, I immediately connected with him at some level. His aspirations of going to a good university and coming out with a nice job felt so much like how I and most of my friends thought and felt in our late teens. Once you connect with the person on some of the very important aspects of life, you tend to think of him/her as someone very much like you. You unknowingly settle down, lower your guard and get comfortable and open-minded. I was in that frame of mind, totally unsuspecting when I reached the part about the 9/11 attack. Changez heard about the attacks like many of us did...turned on the TV and saw the early unedited reports trickling in. He saw the chaos and the confusion, just like many of us did. I felt deceived when he spoke of his reaction. He smiled! He felt a certain pleasure at the symbolism of it all...of the fact that someone had brought America to its knees. From my understanding of human psyche, I am not able to fathom how someone (sane, like Changez) could smile watching something like that. That's just inhuman. I can understand hard core criminals, hardened soldiers not flinch at the sight of a thousand people being killed. I can understand a religious fanatic feel nice about something like this. Changez was just a normal citizen of Pakistan. If the intent of the book was to portray how civilians of impacted Muslim countries have come to feel this way, then his narration wasn't compelling enough. I for one, haven't got any better understanding of his people, his country's perspective than what I started off with.

The protagonist is a 22 year old. Some might argue that his thoughts and actions at times reflect some immaturity and in-experience.In my opinion, some things are very inborn. One doesn't need to have grey hair to be able to see that the opinion and decisions taken by the head of the country might not necessarily be in-line with a citizen of that country. Changez's mentor, Jim,in the company he works for is a true friend and guide. In some situations, Jim goes out of his way for Changez's sake and entrusts the firms reputation and a lot of responsibility on Changez. During one such assignment, Changez figures himself out, and decides that he truly belongs back home, in Pakistan and not there in the US. Once this realization dawns on him, he drops the task in hand and puts Jim's position and the firms reputation in jeopardy and walks out. His inability to shield a true friend and supporter from the impact of his decision surprised me. In my opinion, his priorities are to the people who loved and cared for him. There's no rule that one must return all the good that one has received...but there definitely is an expectation. Changez fell short of my expectations.