The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Review

“Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America“ - The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid

Enter the post 9/11 world where chaos has curtailed us for long and only recently a re-look over past decisions and emotions have led to some reconciliation from all sides of the divide. For long, Americans, more notably Republicans led by George Bush had us believe his version of the truth and even for us urban Pakistanis, a lot of ground realities of our own regions have been forcefully mislead through our own governments which was puppetted along with the greater emotional American sentiment. Until recently, the Americans had befooled themselves for not differentiating between AlQaeda and the Taliban, our own government was busy creating an unrealistic divide of moderates and extremists depending on mere political inclinations. The actions of such rhetoric led to greater increase in rebellion and that too in a pretty bloody brainwashed way. However, in general, the masses, even the educated ones have a strong resilience to American 'adventures' as one political analyst says, in the region, the international media has still been kept in the dark.

For the outside world, the gray scale of reality is but a sharp noir of alqaeda vs US rhethoric. It veils all parallel truths propelling the mischief of terrorism (or accused terrorism). It also motivates the case for writers such as Mohsin Hamid for portraying that unlucky character who stands between fanaticism and confused enlightenment of extreme nature.

Here lies the beauty of a novel as compact as a couplet but vast in its implications and thought provocation that leads one to really ask the fundamental questions of liberty, justice and equality. It is not about "Either you are with us or against us", it is not about, "war against terrorism", it is not about exporting scape goats and whistle blowers, it is not about detaining 'suspects' who generally aren't good at pleasing big brother. Its about perceptions and motives.

Thumbs up to Mohsin Hamid for not just putting this point forward but to open up a subject with a truly subjective understanding for the reader. What happens in the end of the novel is what you may want to believe or already are fastened to believe. The case rests that yes, there are other explanations of the post 9/11 world than what we can perceive in our small shells.