Leser-Rezension zu „The Reluctant Fundamentalist” von Mohsin Hamid
Wolkenatlas
am 16.09.2008
Up's and down's...
The idea, which starts off "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is indeed brilliant, a man takes a seat at another man's table and starts telling him his story. A story of his Princeton studies, of a love lost to a dead man and of the professional possibilities in the United States, given at first and left unused by himself as an indirect result of the September 11th events. The novel evolves well and is beautifully written. My main objection is, that at that "one" moment when you expect to be finally elevated into the "why's and what's" level of the plot, I had the feeling that the author had a sudden urge to finish his novel. Of course, this is a subjective feeling and maybe wrong. Anyway, I felt that there were too many crucial open points for me after closing this book and with all respect to open endings, this one left me quite unhappy. What I personally also could not really identify, was the fundamentalism of the narrator. A good read, a remarkable talent of a writer, but no masterpiece. I do think that there will be really great novels coming by Mohsin Hamid. This one promises them. That is the reason for my 4 stars.
