Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Hardback books annoy me. They’re bulky in my bag and overpriced. Worse, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is more accurately a novella and thus feels like an even worse rip-off, but I’m discussing it at a book club next week and it’s not yet out in paperback so a purchase was unavoidable.

Enough preamble: TRF is the Booker-nominated story of Changez, a young Pakistani guy who goes to the USA for university, lands a top job in NYC and then struggles to come to terms with the changes in his life following 9/11. There’s also a bleak love interest to add breadth. It’s an interesting story and I’m glad I read it but the premise of the first person narrative spoken to a little-known third party really, really grated; it felt laboured and pointless and entirely devalued the result. In fact, the whole thing seemed somewhat clunky, like a recipe where the individual elements haven’t blended as intended – well-thought out, good in principle, but ultimately indigestible. I’m not saying I could do better, and I know that my novel’s attempts at plot devices would be as glaring as they come, but when it comes to recommending this book, I’m fundamentally reluctant.