Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist ***

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a bit of a misnomer for this short novel in which a Pakistani man tells the tale of how he abandoned his successful life in America in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The title is misleading because the narrator has a political awakening, not a religious one. His awakening comes not from the 9/11 attacks themselves, or from the treatment of Muslims in their aftermath, but from the United States' policies in Pakistan and India.

The book presents a revealing portrait of an immigrant's complex feelings about being an American and a Pakistani. Two events stand out in particular. In the first, Changez is in the Philippines as part of an elite group of American financiers and sees a jeepney driver staring at him hostilely. Changez identifies with both his colleagues and the driver. In the second, a man compares Changez to a janissary who had been raised and trained in the conquering army and "fought to erase their own civilization, so they had nothing else to turn to."

There is a lot to like in The Reluctant Fundamentalist –– for example, the scene-setting in Lahore is strong –– but my enjoyment was tempered by two distracting gimmicks. 

• Changez narrates his story as a monologue with asides directed at the man he's speaking to ("I observe, sir, that you are watching me with a rather peculiar expression").  This format had me focusing on the theatrical artifice rather than the subtle themes of the story. 
• In the United States, Changez falls in love with Erica, a woman who obsesses about a former lover. Erica did not come across as a real person but as a symbolic plot device.