The Reluctant Fundamentalist (edit title)

• Rated 4 stars

“very interesting style and story. Ive never read a book quite like this one. The ending was great-thrilling and ambiguous. The story was emotional but also political-the story took place during the 9/11 attack.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Great book. Suspenseful. ”

• Rated 3 stars

“I am not sure what to think about this book. I think will take it to my book club to get some other opinions on it!”

• Rated 3 stars

“Not at all what the title leads you to believe the story is about. It was also pretentious at times, but despite its flaws, it's still a good story that kept me reading to the end.”

• Rated 2 stars

“The Reluctant Fundamentalist is one of those books I had passed in the bookstore dozens of times. I’d picked it up, read the back, then put it back down again. Eventually I gave in and checked it out of the library to satisfy my curiosity about it. Yet despite its popularity, something about it didn’t ring true to me.

Changez is an intelligent and successful Princeton graduate. Despite having been born in Pakistan, he feels like he has adopted his affluent lifestyle completely. 9/11 changes that perception for him, and he realizes that some part of him doesn’t fit in. Later he tells his story to an American at an open-air restaurant, and the reader can’t help but feel that the situation is a bit sinister.

I did not dislike this book, but it didn’t ring true to me. Everything from his romance with Erica to his relationship with his coworkers in the wake of 9/11 seemed hollow and contrived. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“Taut. Suspenseful. Worth the Booker nomination.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Unexpectedly, a thriller. Couldn't put it down!”

• Rated 4 stars

“ A thought-provoking novel. The main character, Changez is a very human person, polite and well-spoken as he tells his story and someone that could easily be that person who lives next door, or that co-worker that has always been so polite.

His reaction to 9/11 was, I think, realistic, and the first real indication of who he actually is. Despite the fact that he was given opportunities galore (Free education, extraordinary job opportunities) he still resents the U.S. - and that seems...more A thought-provoking novel. The main character, Changez is a very human person, polite and well-spoken as he tells his story and someone that could easily be that person who lives next door, or that co-worker that has always been so polite.

His reaction to 9/11 was, I think, realistic, and the first real indication of who he actually is. Despite the fact that he was given opportunities galore (Free education, extraordinary job opportunities) he still resents the U.S. - and that seems tied to his resentment of how times in Pakistan grow worse throughout the years.

The love story with Erica was heart-breaking, and the ending was chilling.

Recommended for those who want a glimpse of how the "other side" not directly involved in the terrorist attacks might have felt and reacted.”

• Rated 4 stars

“A prize shortlist is normally something to be approached with scepticism. I learnt , however, that to dismiss a book for being selected is as futile and purile as arguing over how one book is better than another either pre- or post-prize-giving. Only after checking did I find that I have read half of the 2007 shortlist for the Booker- a vintage year indeed. Mohsin Hamed's novel is quite forgettable at first, but gradually weaves together many nuances to paint a startling, modern take on that old literary hat, the novel of socio-cultural displacement. Like the later Booker winner Adiga's The White Tiger, but bereft of the humour, Hanif's novel almost reboots a genre of sorts which must never be forgot. Although the writer occassionally shows his hand in the otherwise faultless first-person narrator, the story of a young Pakistani struggling to reconcile his Easternness with his Westernness in New York is (though I loathe the term) a must-read for Occi- as well as Orientals.”

• Rated 4 stars

“I enjoyed this. Very simple structure and style. ”