The dilemma of secular man
Farida Shaikh reads a literary-political work and thinks of Fahrenheit 9/11
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Mohsin Hamid
Penguin/Viking
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is what meets the eyes of a young native Pakistani when he intently looks at contemporary America. Similarly, in a juxtaposition of the situation, present day Pakistan appears like Moth Smoke to the same native who has lived in and loved America for so many years and in so many ways. There is a divide, and a difference and writing are the only bridge of explanation.
The design of the book cover tells the tale, in a fashion that rekindles the idea of beauty being in the eyes of the beholder. What America is like, therefore, comes through the eyes of the one who happens to be gazing.
Mohsin Hamid began writing his second novel during the summer of 2000 while working as a management consultant with a firm in New York. The narrative style of the novel is in dramatic monologue, delivered by a single person who is not the writer. The central feature is the revelation of the speaker's true character and temperament. Changez is the bearded Pakistani protagonist who speaks to an American listener in a critical moment:
As for myself, I was clearly on the threshold of great change; only the final catalyst was required, and in my case that catalyst took the form of lunch.
And the young man is attempting to come to terms with the notion that he is a modern-day janissary serving the empire of American corporatism.
Then he asked, "Have you heard of the janissaries?" "No," I said. "They were Christian boys", he explained, "captured by the Ottomans and trained to be soldiers in a Muslim army at that time the greatest army in the world. They were ferocious and utterly loyal: they had fought to erase their own civilization, so they had nothing else to turn to."
Focus on the Fundamentals was the guiding principle drilled into the new recruits, meaning total concentration on the financial details…that determined an asset's value. Changez' devoted zeal to his job provided no niche for feelings of mercy towards the displaced workers. And a shift in this allegiance occurred soon enough and gave way to reluctance on the part of the foremost analyst of the company.
The writer's agent is puzzled by the protagonist's inner conflict: why does a secular and westernised Muslim man feel such tension with America? The writer tells him there was deep resentment in much of the rest of the world towards the sole remaining superpower.
America's constant interference in the affairs of others, Vietnam, Korea, Straits of Taiwan, Middle East, Afghanistan, playing the central role in the conflicts, with intermittent periods of aid and sanctions, is intolerable--------- finance was a primary means by which the American Empire exercised its power.
Changez thinks it right to refuse participation in this project of domination, and becomes an ex-janissary, free of compulsion to evaluate a single part, rather to look at the entire American society.
To resolve the issue, the writer resigned himself to a process of writing that would mirror …the writer's first novel . . .
He leaves America, and from across the Atlantic in September…… watched the World Trade Center fall in a place he still thought of as home.
In Manila, Changez sees the collapse of the twin towers of the New York World Trade Center on television. The symbolism of it all made him happy---- that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees.
Another layer of the narration is the love story centering on Erica, who resembles erotica, meaning erotic literature and art and minus the letters o, and t, is parallel to the main theme, necessary to awaken the erotic sensibilities for the protagonist's self realisation; his willingly taking on the persona of Erica's past lover gives rise to the dual suffering, his own identity crisis and pushing Erica into deeper confusion about her past.
This is a book which I read to the end without interruption. I enjoyed reading the beautiful prose, the narration was free flowing, clear and cool water on a summer day. I re-read the beginning, the end and the middle sections of the book and found new meanings and thoughts. Maybe, soon, some film maker will write a screenplay based on the story and turn it into a movie comparable to and possibly more gripping and successful than Fahrenheit 9/11.
Farida Shaikh is a consultant on sociology-management.
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