The reluctant fundamentalist reading log
The novel I read is called The Reluctant Fundamentalist. It is about Changez who is a
Pakistani man that we get to know in a café in Lahore where he suddenly starts talking to a
stranger. The books narrative is he retelling his life story to this foreigner, with some halfmonolog half-dialog scenarios in between. You cannot read what the stranger says but he
answers Changez in some way and it’s quite annoying to have Changez have a semi-monolog
out of nowhere.
The story is that he tells about his life, everything from his life in Princeton and his love
interest Erica to his life in Pakistan and how he came from the upper class but at the time
that he went to the US the Pakistani currency had plumed and he now his worth was down
with it.
This resulted in a quite interesting event where he had to work extra at these “low status”
jobs while at the same time upholding his “upper class” persona. I found it fascinating how
he both managed to display an upper-class veil and at the same time wanted to do it.
Even though that those kids were born with a silver spoon in the mouth and were unfamiliar
with struggling to keep rent and tuitions. This was solved, although in a way that did not
display his worth, but in that he got an “internship” at a well-recognized and appealing firm
that was very exclusive and only for the best of the best – which he managed to be.
Despite of his believing of how the interview was supposed to be and was thrown curve-ball
after curve-ball by the interviewer to get thrown of and expose his “real” self, and thus
succeed in the interview.
Changez is the central figure of the novel and the story-line is about his life and experiences.
He seems like this perfect son-in-law while he genuinely cares about people and those
around him, like the guy at the Deli when he says, “do you never go home”. Later I have
found out that he turns out to be a not so perfect son-in-law while he is quite insane. Thus,
making me question everything that he does even though I have not come to the bizarre
parts yet. The author makes a tremendous work in displaying him as this superb man even
though he is sincerely damaged inside. This makes the character authentic and believable
and somehow even relatable, although we readers are not at the same level in insanity.
After reading half this novel I can certainly say that I have never read a book with a semimonolog in between stories and would hope to never do it again. Although the story line
itself is very amusing the cuts to the café ruins the experience and throws you back into
reality.
Peter H. Hansson S16C