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The Reluctant Fundamentalist

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In a recent article in The Washington Post" (7.22.07) titled "ROOTS OF RAGE: "Why Do They Hate Us?", Mohsin Hamid writes about an encounter at a book signing in Texas for "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." He was stopped cold when a man asked the subtitle question in a politely pleasant manner that put both author and reader in the "us" category. Hamid notes that he had spent almost half his life in the United States: emigrating from Lahore, Pakistan at the age of three with his father (who was accepted to a PhD program at Stanford), learning to sing "The Star Spangled Banner" before the Pakistan national anthem, playing baseball before cricket, writing English before Urdu, and other activities of a typical American kid. The question cut to the quick because in many ways he is, or it seems should be, one of us.

The Post piece goes on to lay out an autobiography which in considerable part became the plot of "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." Hamid returned to Lahore at the age of nine, growing up there pleasurably before the city was adversely impacted economically and culturally (strict morality codes, intimidation of politicians, academics, and journalists) by American backing of Pakistan's dictator Mohammed Zia ul-Haq in exchange for Zia's support of the mujaheddin, the Afghan guerrilla group fighting the Russian occupation which later became an American holy war adversary. Like the character Changez in the novel, he returned to the United States to attend Princeton University.

How much of the remainder of the book (Changez's outstanding performance in a business evaluation firm prior to being fired in debilitating disenchantment when he recognized the havoc his work was causing in the global workplace, the American girlfriend who ultimately fails him, et cetera) is unknown. But there is enough to support the notion that fiction, well written, can often articulate more basic truth than nonfiction. And "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is brilliantly and beautifully written. There is no action (no bombs, no bullets, no noisy chaos) but there is suspense, gripping suspense (the feeling that something rather awful may happen at any moment), as Changez spends an evening over dinner telling his story to an American at a restaurant at a disquieting Lahore market. We never know the American's name or anything about him (whether businessman, tourist,, government agent)) except for his excruciating fear in the exotic foreign setting in which he finds himself. All this is conveyed through the narrative voice of Changez interpreting the American's reaction as the story unfolds.

The unnamed American is a stand-in, the nervous visitor in a strange foreign land, for all of us as we ponder the ghosts and goblins of the war on terror. Uneasy and watchful in that eerie marketplace, he could be any one of us anywhere. The girl with whom Changez falls in love is also, in a sense, a prototype for an America that cannot give up the memory of a dead lover (our nostalgia for the innocent security of a time that is past) and accept Changez for what he is: a smart, well-educated, if culturally different, Muslim foreigner who longs for acceptance.

In the Post article, Hamid answers the question of why they hate us as part envy and part reaction to American foreign policy. But his answer is less convincing that the one he offers to a reverse question, Why Do They Love Us?: "People abroad admire Americans not because they back foreign dictators but because they believe that all men and all women are created equal. That concept does not stop at the borders of the United States. . . .

"The challenge that the United States faces today boils down to a choice. It can insist on its primacy as a superpower, or it can accept the primacy of its values. If it chooses the former, it will heighten the resentment of foreigners and increase the likelihood of visiting disasters upon distant populations -- and vice versa. If it chooses the latter, it will discover something it appears to have forgotten: that the world is full of potential allies."

Readers of "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" will experience, at least for a few hours, some of the feelings of others across the world who are observing our fears and anxieties as we weigh the crucial choices which lie ahead. It could be time well spent.

By now, you what the book is about. And you've heard the disagreements - fundamentalist, not so; controversial, innocuous; hate mail, balanced viewpoint; etc., etc. It seems like there is little left to say. But let me try and present some different perspectives on the book - things I see less talked about but which I believe are crucial to its understanding, interpretation, and appreciation.

So, let me start by stating the two key themes I am not going to be discussing: the sort of "coming-of-age" and maturing of an individual as a consequence of the social and political events around him, and the analysis of the transition that a society goes through as exemplified by the impact of some dramatic events on an individual or a family. I think both these themes are played out in this book, and played out very well like almost everything else in it, but they are still secondary themes. The real objective of the book I believe is to showcase the entire generation of "reluctant fundamentalists" that have spawned among Generations X&Y across the globe (primarily as a result of the huge economic disparities between the developed and developing nations, but that's an altogether separate debate and something I won't go into further here). These fundamentalists are not born so, they are not trained to be so, they often feel ashamed to be so, and are quintessentially not so, but nonetheless, when cornered, they become so as a natural outcome of some primal human behavioural traits like love for one's own and protecting of one's territory. These are the circumstantial fundamentalists. Changez is just one such man, and the dichotomy playing out in the minds of these reluctant fundamentalists is demonstrated in an excellent fashion through his actions in this book. Till he is cornered (metaphorically, when 9/11 takes place), he displays no fundamentalist tendencies. But once he is, some primal emotions surface. Thereafter, he and those around him get into a vicious cycle, as a result of which he keeps getting pushed back more and more, and like most people, does not know how to respond except by becoming defensive, by retreating into familiar territory, and sometimes by lashing out in unjustifiable ways. Does he regret some of his reactions - absolutely, for he knows that some of them represent something inhumane and cannot be justified by any measures of morality. And that is the dilemma of the reluctant fundamentalist - the battle between the greater good and the smaller but more personal concerns. That is the dilemma every one of us is likely to face at some point in our life - protecting what is near and dear to us, or protecting what is right. That is the dilemma that Mohsin Hamid is trying to lay bare, and I think he does it fantastically.

There are two other aspects of the book which I'd like to briefly touch upon: the very interesting relationship between Changez and Erica, and also Erica's downward mental spiral. These are not key themes in the book, and to be honest, I don't believe are essential to the narrative of the book, but are still very well detailed and beautiful sub-stories in themselves which could have become good fodder for another book. These stories are really Erica's, as she gradually, not suddenly, loses her ability to deal with her dead lover, and how that loss affects her present relationships, especially with Changez. I thought this narrative was startling and beautiful, despite its inevitable tragic end.

In conclusion, I'd like to strongly recommend this book to all those readers who are trying to get some incisive and powerful insight into the minds of the quasi-fundamentalist behaviour being shown by many today. This book is not going to solve the culture-, religion-, or class-based clashes in the world today, but if it can help even a few people understand each other better, which I believe it will be able to, then it's a very worthwhile addition to the annals of literature.

On first glance, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid appears to be about a brilliant young Pakistani national named Changez who finishes at the top of his class at Princeton and is hired by Underwood Samson, the most prestigious and world-famous corporate valuation firm based in New York City. We are encouraged by the title and the dark overtones of the dramatic monologue in which the book is narrated, to believe that somehow, by the end of the novel, Changez turns into a Muslim fundamentalist and implied terrorist. Wow, now that is a theme that really hits a bull's-eye with the American psyche!

Most Americans are sincerely confused by what is happening in the world today. We see rampant anti-Americanism, frightening Islamic terrorism, news of successful professionals being recruited into the ranks of the terrorists, and we can't imagine why. We hope to get inside the head of one of these characters and see the world from their point of view--perhaps finally understand what drives them to these drastic ends.

The book delivers on these issues and much more--very clever indeed! The monologue is narrated with spare, well-crafted prose that is often old-fashioned--and disconcerting. The archaic prose casts the story in a shroud of strangeness elevating the suspense and making the whole an unequivocal, unrelenting page-turner.

There is a marvelous linguistic and thematic trick built into that word "fundamentalist" used in the title and the text of the book. In the entire novel, religion is never once mentioned. Fundamentalism, in the context of terrorism, always refers to religious fundamentalism. But this book is not about a budding Muslim fundamentalist. So what type of fundamentalist is this, and why is he reluctant?

This is about a man fighting two inner battles: one moral and one political. In the beginning of his skyrocketing American dream career, Changez is temporarily blinded to one of his most ingrained core moral values: compassion. He comes from a family and a culture where people, no matter how poor, routinely celebrate their greatest joys by giving generously to the poor. When Changez comes home to Pakistan for a brief visit with his family, his mother dances ecstatically twirling a 100-rupee note over her head. What a wonderful image! Now, ask yourself how we in the West celebrate our greatest achievements and joys, and let this, and the other similar nuggets of open, cross-cultural insights peppered throughout this work, ignite your thinking about contemporary world issues!

In the beginning, Changez feels stirrings of compassion for the "soon-to-be-redundant workers" (p. 99) that will, no doubt, fall victim to his brilliantly accurate valuation analyses. Sensing this, Jim, Changez' corporate mentor at Underwood Samson, coaches him often to "focus on the fundamentals"--the bottom line, the numbers, don't let emotion or compassion get in the way. However, by the time the book draws to a close--when Changez is in Valparaiso, Chile helping valuate a troubled book publishing firm that spends too much of its assets publishing worthy academic, literary, and poetic books that eventually end up losing money for the firm--here Changez becomes the reluctant fundamentalist of the book's title. He can no longer focus only on the bottom line. He can no longer ignore the deep core of compassion that is his personal moral compass.

So, does he also become a fundamentalist terrorist? The author leaves that up to you to decide. The ending is deftly and provokingly ambiguous. But no matter which ending you choose to imagine--and you will vacillate--the overall cross-cultural thematic points have already been made, and that is what is important and what endures long after you've finished the book.

There is also the inner political battle that Changez undergoes during the course of the novel. He begins his job at Underwood Samson a few months before 9/11. How he reacts to that news, and how America changes in the wake of that news--both form crucial themes that resonate throughout. In many ways the book is about the dangers of not embracing change. The author and the main character find much fault with America's fundamental backwards-looking reaction after 9/11. Instead of trying to come to terms with how America must fundamentally change in the new post-9/11 world order, Changez sees Americans retreating back to an old-fashioned nostalgia for America, the righteous superpower, the imperialistic dominator of the globe. To Changez, America's self-righteous nostalgia is a terminal illness. To mirror this theme, there is lovely parallel story of Changez' love for the mentally fragile Erica. She fails precisely because she cannot free herself from her nostalgia for her dead former lover. She cannot move forward with her life, despite the fact that the reader can see very clearly that Changez and Erica have the makings of a truly enduring love.

So if America is failing to change, and Erica fails to change, what happens to Changez? He changes (change-ez)! [Is this, too, along with the word "fundamentalist," perhaps another linguistic thematic pun?] We the reader are left to figure out if the main character's change is for the better, or not. Thus the ambiguous ending leaves us wondering.

This novel is so clever! It really makes you think. It entertains with suspense as well as giving you an achingly beautiful love story--and underlying all is much to be learned about the current state of the world.

I recommend this book highly, as I also do one of the other top contenders for the 2007 Booker Prize, namely Ian McEwen's "On Chesil Beach." (I've also reviewed this book here on Amazon.) Personally, I hope Hamid's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" will win. I believe it clearly deserves it.

Rarely will I describe a book as beautiful. Yet I cannot think of a more befitting descriptive for Mohsin Hamid's THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST.

The story centers around a meeting at an outdoor café in Lahore between a Pakistani man named Changez and a suspicious-looking American with the bearing that makes him out to be either military or intelligence agent. Changez engages the man initially in tea and conversation. After awhile, seeing the American most attentive --and also a bit wary of his surroundings, the Pakistani orders dinner for the two of them; meanwhile going deeper into his memories about times spent in America, as a student at Princeton and later as a rising star at a New York valuation firm. Changez also recollects his budding romance with Erica, the daughter of a wealthy investment banker who was sure to enable Changez's entry to high society. Changez was well on his way to success when the twin towers of the World Trade Center came tumbling down on September 11, 2001.

Changez's reaction to their collapse alarms and confuses him; he finds himself smiling and overjoyed. The elation, however, isn't over the deaths of 3,000 innocent people, but rather thet there are those who are able to strike at the United States --an entity which has long held him in awe with its almost limitless power, wealth and ability to affect the world: sometimes for the best, sometimes for the worst. As America becomes enraged and seeks revenge upon anything and anyone Muslim, he reads reports of Pakistan becoming coerced into the war against Afghanistan and of India taking advantage of this situation threatening his homeland. Becoming ever more distanced from our society and his work, it becomes increasingly harder for Changez to continue at his career. A job which he now sees as dependent upon the expense and suffering of others. Making matters worse, Erica, the one person who perhaps could have kept him grounded and focused, suffers a mental relapse over the shock of 9/11. Erica slips back into the debilitating state she suffered over the death of her longtime childhood friend and lover, Chris, two years earlier. Eventually Changez returns to Pakistan. Changez today is a different man from the ambitious and obedient corporate cog he described living back in New York. Yet as he speaks to the American about his country's indifference to the rest of the world, about America's unconcern for the expense her wars of revenge are costing others, he still he cannot hide his love for America. However, it is no longer the romanticizing love of an infatuated innocent, instead it is the love one has for another depite all the other's faults and abuses. A love reluctant, but love nonetheless.

The monologue telling of this story is beguiling. Changez holds the reader spellbound as he keeps the unidentified American man's interest for hours. Mohsin Hamid's gift for words and symbolism, and the intricacies he creates with them, is astounding. Admittedly, some of Changez actions and statements will repel many of us American readers (his gleeful response to the jets slamming into the Twin Towers certainly did it to me). Keep in mind, however, that this is a voice which exists amongst millions of those out there, from Totonto and London, to Pakistan and Indonesia. It is a voice we have been told to ignore, but it still won't go away. That's because it is not only the voice of the popeyed rageboys constantly being shown in our media, but also the voice of men like Changez, who tried making sense of America's dichotomies, but can no longer struggle to reconcile the willful ignorance and arrogant indifference that exists within our nation's beauty and spirit. So, we may call them "fundamentalists," but we must start to recognize that many are reluctant to be such. They have the rageboys, but we have the coldly calculating geopolitical experts, who smile and assure us of our "national interests." Changes must come from all of us.

This novel is told as a monologue, which works extremely well. I guess the characters are easily made into icons, Changez, Erica, and Chris. Change, America, and Christ. Erica loves Chris, but Chris is dead. Changez loves Erica, but the relationship collapses after 9/11, as Erica sinks into the past.

Changez is a Pakistani who graduates from Princeton. He gets a great job as a financial analyst. He cannot accept what is happening, as America asserts itself in his native lands. A year or so after leaping onto the ladder of success, he throws it all away.

There is no question, it seems to me, that Americans make great financial analysts, across any borders. On the other hand, the ability to analyze other cultures is less developed. This book is from the perspective of someone who knows America, but comes to rage against America.

Erica cannot truly see Changez because she is lost in the past, with Chris. And yet Changez cannot simply walk away, even when the hopelessness and futility is obvious. When Changez returns to Pakistan, he finds a pursuit that clearly pleases him. But now the character is completely wrapped up, emotionally, with America, as he was with Erica. There is an impression of a deluded, self-important America but also of an inablity to cope with America, except with rage. It's not a pleasing cycle of pathology.

The way this story is crafted is very deft and enjoyable. The ending is awkward, but reflects the undefined nature of the man to whom the monologue is addressed. The title of the novel is a little odd.

The central character is appealing, but not compelling. He is young. He lacks for experience. His emotions are complex, but they ring true. This is more like the first chapters of a novel that follows the character for another 20 years, or whatever.

Changez presents an interesting perspective of life in America in the aftermath of 9/11 but ultimately fails to deliver because ofhis overly superficial treatment of complex issues. He disappoints with some unsupported statements such as that he took secret pleasure in the terrorism that claimed 3,000+ lives but gives the reader no reason, up to that point, why this should have pleased him. Changez experienced a first class university, acceptance by and recognition from his peers, and an enviable professional opportunity. He then expresses outrage at the US "invasion" of Afghanistan without an attempt to connect the dots. He prides himself on his education and his enlightened background but he ignores the presence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, a brutal and oppressive regime that kept women in ignorance, most of the country in abject poverty and provided training grounds for terrorists. I would expect a more nuanced perspective from a Princeton educated observer. Again, his infatuation with Erica was cliche driven - the unattainable golden girl from Park Avenue. This reader failed to feel his passion or the true nature of his involvement.

Like Kazuo Ishiguro's brilliant NEVER LET ME GO, this fantastic novel is one that you should finish before reading reviews since knowing too much of the plot will spoil this story for you. Also set aside enough time to finish THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST in one sitting for you will not be be able to put it down. I was hooked by page 4--the novel is slim, consisting of 184 pages but it is too rich and intense to be much longer-- when the narrator describes Princeton University as raising her skirt "for the corporate recruiters who came onto campus and--as you say in America--showed them some skin." About that narrator-- he is a Pakistani named Changez who is now 25 years old who is telling his story to an unnamed nervous American as they have a meal at a cafe in Lahore ("there is no need to reach under your jacket, I assume to grasp your wallet"). Educated at Princeton and the recipient of financial aid, he accepted a position at the high-powered financial firm of Underwood Samson immediately out of college and worked tirelessly, always achieving more than his elite American co-workers. He also fell in love with the beautiful but sad American Erica. He was in Manilla on assignment on that ignominious day of September 11 when his world, and those of many others, changed. Enough of the plot. Changez' extended dramatic monologue will affect you in many different ways. You will be at once sympathetic to this complex character but repelled by him.

Mr. Hamid's richly nuanced novel will keep you reading as the tension builds. He asks difficult questions that many of us would choose to avoid, specifically about the perception of the United States in the Middle East and other parts of the world as well and the reasons why we are hated so. In Changez he has created a character that you will not soon forget. The title of the novel speaks multitudes.

I first saw and heard him six weeks ago at a book reading in the British Council in Delhi.

His name is Mohsin Hamid. He grew up in Lahore, Pakistan and studied at Princeton University and Harvard Law School, in the United States. When he came on the stage I saw a slight man, with receding hair, glasses and a quiet air. He was introduced by the British Council staff and began reading. His voice was pleasant to the ear and without accent.

Hamid read from the first chapter of his book, describing an on-campus interview with a large and successful firm that specializes in 'valuations' of firms up for acquisition.

The book is written in first person, as a conversation between himself and an American stranger he encounters in a cafe in Lahore. The conversation is his story and happens between dusk and nightfall. I too finished it in two hours, between 10 PM and 12 AM.

The story is about a young man, Changez, who is the amongst the best and brightest of his graduating class at Princeton, and his entry into the world of New York - his work, his meeting and getting to know a beautiful American woman called Erica, and his life in the exalted circles of the city, that Erica introduces him to. But, in the aftermath of September 11, his position in the city he has grown to love, changes. Erica slowly disappears into her ghosts of the past and he begins to see his work through a new lens. His identity shifts - unearthing allegiances more fundamental than power, money and love.

Hamids' transformation of Changez - from a middle class well educated young man to someone who begins to be more questioning of what he had adopted so readily - is easy to understand. It evokes a classic dilemma that provokes a choice - between the supposed freedom and democracy of America, to the dictatorship and restrictions of Pakistan. Is this the clash of civilizations?

Not really. But, it is a difference of realities and perceptions. And, this difference is hard to bridge. When events such as September 11 occur, they provide us with the opportunity to ask the most fundamental questions, of ourselves and those around us. Who am I? What do I stand for? What do I believe in? Who is my family, my community? What is my country?

People like Hamid and me, who span across at least two predominant cultures, are caught at the edge of each. Where do we belong? I like to think of myself as a person who is comfortable with a leg in each and yet I want my own identity. I won't let my country, family or people tell me what to think or how to behave. But, when I live in a culture that is predominantly the other, I may have to conform to that culture. I don't need to give up what I hold dear, but I need my ear to the ground in a way I don't in my own country.

Changez leaves America, his job, and that world. He returns to Pakistan and tries to make sense of what is happening around him. In many ways, he becomes more fundamental than he ever was. Very reluctantly.

The 184 page, double spaced book is riveting. It is sharp, the writing is tight and the descriptions perfect. Not an extra syllable is used and the pace of the narrative brisk.

This is Hamid's second book. His first, Moth Smoke was published in ten languages and won many awards. He also writes about politics from a Muslim perspective for Time, New York Times and the Guardian, among others.

This is probably the only novel of its kind, a novel with no lyrical descriptions of people and places. It has no dialogue at all; in fact, the entire novel is a long, gripping monologue.

A novel in the form of a monologue and without a dialogue is a brilliant and novel idea, and it works magnificently in this case only because Mohsin Hamid is a superb writer with formidable prowess. He grips the reader's mind with polished and haunting prose.

The hero of the novel, Changez, a student from Lahore, Pakistan, attends Princeton University. After graduation at the top in his class, he secures an excellent and well-paying job at the elite valuation firm Underwood Samson. He becomes well-adjusted and well-accustomed to the American way of life, falls in love with the beautiful and elegant, Princeton-educated Erica, who hails from an aristocratic family. For the first time in his life Changez is happy. Then, unexpectedly, on September 11, 2001, two planes crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. As a result, the towers collapse. And along with the towers, Changez's personal world also collapses. When the terrorists are identified as Muslims from Saudi Arabia, and people, anchormen, and the media speculate about the reasons for the attack, Changez finds himself questioning the injustices perpetrated by America abroad. His priorities in life change, and he neglects his job. And as a result he loses his job. He returns to Lahore, where at a market in the district of Old Anarkali, he meets an American stranger. The novel is narrated as a monologue addressed to this stranger.

Read what Changez says to the stranger about Princeton University: "Every fall, Princeton raised her skirt for the corporate recruiters who came onto campus and-as you say in America-showed them some skin. The skin Princeton showed was good skin, of course-young, eloquent, and clever as can be-but even among all that skin, I knew in my senior year that I was something special. I was a perfect breast, if you will-tan, succulent, seemingly defiant of gravity-and I was confident of getting any job I wanted."

A few readers have felt that the ending of the novel, though stunning, was all too sudden. But the author has explained in interviews that the ending was intentional. "It was always intended to end as it does. For me, the reader is a character in a novel, and the way one reads it shapes the outcome. So a reader who is more suspicious of Pakistanis might read it differently from one who is more suspicious of Americans. But it is the fear we are all being fed, the sense that something menacing lurks in the shadows of our world, that has the potential to make the novel a thriller," he has said.

Because the events in the novel occur in the shadow of the fall of the Twin Towers, and the novel is written from the perspective of a typical Muslim's mind, and a Muslim from Pakistan, the book has generated a minor storm of controversy. But most of the professional reviewers, and major magazines such as Time, and newspapers such as the NYT, The Guardian, and even the Publishers Weekly and the acerbic Kirkus Review, to name a few, have been fair and kind to the author, and all have written glowing reviews.

I found the novel riveting. Using words smooth as pebbles in a riverbed, the author has produced a novel with a thousand sharp edges. The wounds inflicted by the incidents on September 11, 2001, on Americans' minds, have not yet healed. The author has touched the living scabs of the wounds, rekindling the pain. This novel will make you think about our prejudices and preconceived ideas and it will prompt you to look deep within yourself also, and to ponder about our world which has changed so drastically, almost overnight. It's a masterful feat befitting a great writer. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Mohsin Hamid is an impressive master of English prose.
Reading this novel will leave you spell bound, and it will also literally take your breath away.

In present day Pakistan, a bearded young man engages in a one-sided discussion with an American, a stranger, conversing through the afternoon and evening at a local café. In what is essentially a monologue, Changez, the protagonist, relates his recent past and disillusion with the American dream, the journey that has brought him to this place, time and fate.

A Princeton graduate, Changez looks to a future without impediment, newly hired by a prestigious valuation firm. Although missing his family in Lahore, the twenty-two year old fits perfectly into Underwood Samson, New York City embracing him with its cosmopolitan ambiance, a Pakistani deli near his apartment, the occasional taxi driver who speaks Urdu. Returning from a vacation in Greece, where he has luxuriated in the wealth and privilege of fellow Princeton grads, Changez looks forward to a blooming romance with Erica, a wealthy beauty he met on the islands. Outstanding at his job, his single-mindedness and emotional detachment mark Changez as an employee to watch. While the relationship with Erica remains tentative after they return to the city, Changez is willing to wait, inured to the subtleties of male-female attraction by his culture. To his dismay, the once vivid Erica increasingly withdraws into her past with memories of a former lover, escaping into a world of fantasy.

The shock of 9/11 doesn't immediately impact the Changez's life; dedicated, his work is exemplary, although he is ever more concerned with Erica's aberrant behavior. In the aftermath of the tragedy, a brief visit home is a stark reminder of the differences between the two worlds, Pakistan threatened by India, the United States taking no action to protect an ally in the war on terror. Returning to New York from Lahore, Changez finds that the atmosphere has altered, suddenly conscious of animosity directed at him, the formerly welcoming city turned cold, suspicious and vindictive: "I had always thought of America as a nation that looked forward; for the first time I was struck by its determination to look back."

Beautifully nuanced with fragile immigrant hopes and the tragic annihilation of a promising future, the author paints a provocative picture of post-9/11 reality. Changez is filled with rage, caught between cultures and questioning the great country that has so captured his imagination, his perceptions drastically affected by recent experience. A once unlimited future now truncated by circumstances, Changez questions the falsity of dreams and the danger of delusion: "It is not always possible to restore one's boundaries after they have been blurred and made permeable by a relationship." Even his work is suspect, finance "a primary means by which the American empire exercised its power." In this haunting story of unremitted passion and painful self-discovery, the personal and the political collide. Luan Gaines/ 2007.