Search - The Reluctant Fundamentalist

I was living in NYC on 9/11 and reading this one so close to its eighth anniversary was very painful. The first person narration didn't work for me, and I was revolted that the character smiled while watching footage on television of the Twin Towers falling and felt remarkably pleased. I should have given up at that point, but I kept reading based on the terrific reviews that this book has generated. Can't say that it was worth my time.

In The Reluctant Fundamentalist Changez, a young Pakistani man, tells you (the American reader) the story of how he became an American then went home again. After graduating from Princeton, Changez gets a prestigious position with a firm that values companies in preparation for their sales. He earns a decent salary, the respect of his colleagues, and falls in love with an American woman.

After 9/11, things begin to fall apart for Changez. He experiences anti-Arab backlash from 9/11 and (perhaps even worse)overly-PC and almost condescending sensitivity towards him as a Pakistani. When problems in Pakistan affecting his family become too distracting and his romance with Erica, the American girl, comes to a dead end, Changez is forced to reexamine the person he has become.

Although this book is a quick read, it is very insightful. The honesty of the narrator reveals how complicated it can be to have conflicting allegiances.

I just couldn't get excited about someone who felt he was entitled to be in the "right" groups and upset that he lost his access to them.