Apr 30 2007

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

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In today’s often polarized and hyper-partisan environment conservatives will be tempted to simply write off Moshin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist as just another anti-American screed masquerading as fiction. Those on the opposite end may want to label it in a similar fashion but approve of the politics. That would be a mistake. Yes, the book does contain anti-American sentiment and passages that are, to my mind, rather banal leftist complaints about the xenophobic and destructive nature of the American “empire.” But to categorize this book as simply a political rant dressed-up as art is to deny both its aesthetic merit and the cultural insights it might offer.

Fundamentalist takes the unique form of an extended monologue – one half of a conversation really – given by the central character, a Pakistani man named Changez, to an unnamed American in a Lahore outdoor cafe. Changez recognizes the man as an American and, after recommending a spot for tea, begins to tell the stranger of his own experience in America and the events that led to his return to Pakistan.

There is a great deal of ambiguity involved as Changes relates his story: exactly who is the American and why is he in Pakistan? There is a sense of foreboding surrounding the stranger; a peculiar bulge is noted under his sport coat and he admits to experience with violence and perhaps even war. Does he mean harm to Changez – has he come to Pakistan to seek him out? Hamid never directly reveals the answers; even the ending is ambiguous. Instead, the reader is left to come to his own conclusions about what is happening and why.

This one sided conversation is a risky and difficult format to pull off, but Hamid succeeds for the most part. The story moves at a good pace and Changez/Hamid proves to be an adept storyteller. The tension builds steadily but Hamid smoothly uses the mundane interruptions at the cafe (the waiter taking their orders, bringing food, drinks, desert, the activities of passersby, the darkening evening, etc.) to allow the reader to catch their breath.

Changez’s story is a sort of rags to riches to rags again tale. Immigrant from a well respected – but economically deteriorating – family gets accepted to Princeton and parlays that into a job at a famous valuation firm in New York City and entering the high pressure world of international finance. Along the way, he falls for a beautiful, but troubled, young American from a wealthy family. His future seems bright and exciting.

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By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 3

Apr 27 2007

Ladykiller by Lawrence Light and Meredith Anthony

Not all that surprisingly given my rack record on these things, I have not produced the promised review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist. I am close, but want to try and bring a little more clarity to my thinking and writing before I post on it.

In lieu of this, I am sure, heavily anticipated review allow me to offer something a little different. There have been a number of debates and discussions – some quite heated – on book blogs regarding the potential conflict of interest involved in getting free books. There are a lot of sides to this debate and its implications. You have some professional critics slamming blogs as ignorant gossip sites kissing up to each other. You have some lit blogs standing up for the medium. But you also have some bloggers expressing a great deal of concern that blogs have been co-opted into becoming unpaid marketers and publicists just by the allure of free books and recognition.

I don’t intend to get into a lengthy discussion of the issue here, but I wanted to take a look at this idea through the lens of some reviews of the same book. While doing some background surfing on the recently released
Ladykiller by Lawrence Light and Meredith Anthony I was struck by the wide divergence of opinions on this book. What follows is sampling of reviews and then a discussion of both my take on the book itself, the reviews, and the issue of free books.

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By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0

Apr 26 2007

The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid

I knew nothing about Val McDermid before I received The Grave Tattoo in the mail. But it looked to be an interesting blend of literary historical mystery (plus, I liked the cover). And it was that. The problem was not so much with the conception as the execution.

Start with the plot. Chauncey Mabe at Pop Matters describes it this way:

Struggling Wordsworth scholar Jane Gresham is waiting tables in London to make ends meet when a tattooed “bog body” turns up in the Lake District where she grew up. The body, also dating from the 17th century, bears tattoos suggesting a sojourn in the South Seas, reviving a local legend that Fletcher Christian, leader of the Bounty mutineers, returned home from Pitcairn Island before he died.

Gresham has a theory that Christian shared his story with childhood chum Wordsworth, who turned it into an epic poem. Now she takes a break from her university teaching assistantship to go home and try to find the lost document in the family papers of longtime Lake District families. Almost as soon as she gets home, people start dying under suspicious circumstances.

Meanwhile, Tenille, a 13-year-old from the tough London neighborhood where Gresham rents a bed-sit, runs afoul of police after her aunt’s troublesome boyfriend is murdered. Beguiled by Tenille’s love of poetry, Gresham befriended the girl, who now follows her to the country and becomes involved in hiding from police and helping search for the lost manuscript

Others searching for the valuable document include Gresham’s charming, greedy ex-boyfriend, while River Wilde, a beautiful and ambitious young pathologists, has taken an interest in producing a television series about the bog body.

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By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0

Apr 23 2007

The Northern Lights by Howard Norman

In my discussion of Howard Norman’s latest book Devotion I noted that he was an author whose work I would tend to pick up and read as soon as it was released; or at least as soon as I became aware of it. Having wrote this, it struck me as a good time to go back and catch up on the the books I had not yet read. I happened to have The Northern Lights on the shelf and so bumped it up the TBR pile and read it.

The Northern Lights was Norman’s first novel so it is interesting to go back and see many of the same ideas and themes that populate his later works. The story centers around 14-year-old Noah Krainik who lives with his mother and cousin in Northern Manitoba. Noah, however, spends large chunks of time away from his family farther north with his best friend Pelly Bay. Noah’s father is largely absent from his life and he is forced to try and make sense of the world mostly on his own.

Pelly’s tragic death and the disappearance of Noah’s father set off a series of events that lead to Noah’s mom and cousin moving to Toronto with Noah soon to follow. Noah’s mom Mina ends up working at, and then buying, the movie theater where she worked when she married his father – The Northern Lights of the book’s title. The married owner becomes infatuated with her and when rebuffed turns to drink and increasingly unstable behavior. This behavior causes him to lose, and Mina to acquire, the theater.

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By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0