"Such journeys have convinced me that it is not always possible to restore one's boundaries after they have been blurred and made permeable by a relationship; ourselves as the autonomous beings we previously imagined ourselves to be. Something of us is now outside, and something of the outside is now within us."
Mohsin Hamid
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
There is so much fear in the world today. So much fear, and not enough empathy. Terrible things have happened in the past several years. Terrible civil wars, acts of terrorism, people fleeing their home because it is the last chance they have. All of this amidst posturing and stereotyping, all on a world scale.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the story that a man named Changez, that he tells to a jumpy American in a cafe in Lahore, and his love affair with an american woman in the days immediately following 9/11 and the events that lead him to quit America and to return to his homeland.
This book was an incredible commentary on globalization, racism, espionage, and the mixing of cultures in a world where people seldom agree with one another. It was fantastic. Beautifully written, it was a wonderful examination on the nature of being a stranger in a foreign country, particularly a stranger whose foreignness is view negatively by the native populace, and the strange way the global politics is conducted.
"I stated to them among other things that no country inflicts death so readily upon the inhabitants of other countries, frightens so many people so far away as American."
The thing I liked the most about this book was how it examined how far the effects of Americas actions go, and how the average American seldom knows these effects.
Everyone should read this book.
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