The Hindu Business Line : Restrained brilliance

A few pages into Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Penguin/Viking) and you'll understand why this book has been getting such rave reviews. In masterly strokes Hamid explains, quietly and at the same time brilliantly, the growing disenchantment of upper-class, educated and polished Muslims — he describes himself a "lover of America" — with western countries, particularly the US in the aftermath of 9/11.

The narrative begins and continues as a monologue throughout the book which is set against the famous and vibrant Old Anarkali area of Lahore, that you can well call the `jaan' of Pakistan's literary and cultural capital. It grips you instantaneously and keeps you riveted and engaged in the `reluctant fundamentalist's' world till you have come to the last page.

The Princeton-educated Pakistani management graduate Changez spots the unnamed American not through the colour of his skin; "we have a range of complexions in this country, and yours occurs often among the people of our northwest frontier" or his single vent suit, but through his "bearing".

As he takes his American companion through a perfect cup of tea to succulent kebabs, the Pakistani narrates a tale only too familiar to tens of thousands of students in the Indian sub-continent who have gone through the portals of the best institutions in the dreamland called the United States.

On a scholarship at Princeton, the young Changez, a brilliant student himself, is carried off his feet by the impressive buildings, the teachers and the corporate world he enters.

In prose that is as simple as seductive Changez describes how "every Fall, Princeton raised her skirt for the corporate recruiters" and he was one of the lucky few who got into the reputed valuation firm Underwood Samson & Co. But not before he was ribbed a bit at the interview about his having entered Princeton on "financial aid".

Changez explains how his family's position is not much different from that of the "old European aristocracy in the nineteenth century, confronted by the ascendance of the bourgeoisie."

It doesn't take the young Pakistani too long to become the boss's favourite, get accepted in American society and charm the beautiful Erica who is clearly the toast of most parties. But just as he becomes smug and feels like "a young New Yorker with the city at my feet", 9/11 happens and his entire world changes.

He watches the destruction of the twin towers in his room in a Manila hotel where he is on an assignment.

Actually you wait for this passage in the book and note with rapt attention his response to the event. "I stared as one, and then the other — of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Centre collapsed. And then I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased."

Hamid's protagonist takes some trouble to explain to his horrified guest that he is no sociopath who revels in the suffering of people and was "not pleased at the slaughter of thousands of innocents... no, I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to its knees."

Changez beseeches the American not to be displeased and adds, "I understand, of course; it is hateful to hear another person gloat over one's country's misfortunes. But surely you cannot be completely innocent of such feelings yourself. Do you feel no joy at the video clips — so prevalent these days — of American munitions laying waste the structures of your enemies?"

With this one masterful stroke, Hamid brings before the mind's eye TV images of Afghanistan's mud hovels devastated by American missiles or Saddam's giant statue brought down on the day Baghdad fell in 2003. Changez is himself surprised that a product of an American university, one earning a lucrative American salary and infatuated by an American woman should feel this way, and tries his best to mask his feelings in front of his colleagues.

The harassment of course begins; on the flight back to the US, he is searched at the Manila airport, made to strip down to his boxer shorts and is the last man to board the aircraft, greeted by "looks of concern from my fellow passengers. I flew to New York uncomfortable in my own face: I was aware of being under suspicion; I felt guilty; I tried therefore to be as nonchalant as possible; this naturally led to my becoming stiff and self-conscious." The immigration in New York is worse; he is questioned, rather rudely and detained for a while.

New York changes; Pakistani cabbies are beaten up, mosques and houses raided, and Muslim men begin to disappear. "Your country's flag invaded New York after the attacks. Little flags appeared everywhere and seemed to proclaim: "We are America, the mightiest civilization the world has ever known; you have slighted us; beware our wrath."

To make matters worse, after the attack on the Indian Parliament news of the face-off and an impending war between India and Pakistan, even as things in his country go downhill, adds to Changez's distress. A series of events result in his return to his home in Lahore, where he attempts, ever so gently, to convince the American that Pakistanis are not a violent people; the burly waiter might look intimidating but is polite and can speak the sweetest of Urdu, which of course his guest cannot understand! And there is nothing to fear either from the bats or the beggars.

Wrapped in the narrative is Changez's immense love and pride in his country and outrage at its being "intimidated" by both India and the US. As he tells the American, "We were not always burdened by debt, dependent on foreign aid and handouts; in the stories we tell of ourselves we were not the crazed and destitute radicals you see on your television channels but rather saints and poets and — yes — conquering kings. We built the Royal Mosque and the Shalimar Gardens in this city, and we built the Lahore Fort with its mighty walls and wide ramp for our battle-elephants. And we did these things when your country was still a collection of thirteen small colonies, gnawing away at the edge of a continent."

The most amazing feature of Hamid's book is that such anger and sarcasm is always restrained and understated, at no point is there a shrill diatribe or bitter attack on the "decadent west" and its lopsided values that is so commonly found in most Islamic debates or literature that attempt to engage the West, particularly America, in a debate.

As Kiran Desai puts it, it is Hamid's "spooky restraint and masterful control" that makes this book so brilliant. His pen is like a sword that inflicts a deep wound without making a cut or drawing blood. The Reluctant Fundamentalist mesmerises and captivates you till the very end, and ensures that you will not forget this book in a long, long time. It also makes you want to go back to Hamid's first novel Moth Smoke.

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