The Reluctant Fundamentalist

DNF (Spoilers).

Short as this work is I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. While I enjoyed the descriptions of Lahore and had i finished I don't think I would have had any issue with the overall criticisms of the USA that seems to have been the authors intent.

I found it hard to empathise with the construct of the protagonist being a poor rich person in Pakistan who finally manages to enter the world of the super wealthy that he feels he should have been born to when he gets a scholarship to Princeton. That being said there are plenty of books about western elites so, other than it not being the sort of theme I connect to, I don't really have any issues with that.

However, the reason I did not finish was because I could not stomach hearing any more of the sentimental retelling of a supposed love story which was in reality nothing short of an abusive relationship where he betrayed her trust and raped her. I don't really understand how Erica can be representative of USA when in the book she is a young woman recovering from the death of her childhood sweetheart who befriends the young Pakistani protagonist and sees in him the possibility of a new relationship but is abused and raped in return. Not only does the protagonist not seem to see much wrong with his actions but mopes about the place feeling sorry for himself. Not only is this deeply disturbing and misogynistic it is a complete failure of the narrative unless the author is trying to make out that ultimately the USA is the wronged party.

Even if it did work, I am pretty tired of stories where the only purpose that women serve is to use their abuse as a lens to tell a wider story.

From the reviews it seems that the author's other works are better so still willing to give one of those a go at a later time.