The Reluctant Fundamentalist: A Novel
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,  "...Ismiled.  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 RyanA Conversation with Mohsin HamidSet in modern-day Pakistan, Mohsin Hamid's debut novel,Moth Smoke, went on to  win awards and was listed as aNew York TimesNotable 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 totalk abouthis powerful  new bookRead the Amazon.com  Interview with Mohsin Hamid