Vijesh Kumar 
“A searing and powerful account of a Pakistani in New York after 9/11.” So writes Mira Nair, the director of the political thriller drama film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, based on the novel with the same name by veteran Pakistan novelist Mohsin Hamid , the writer of the famous novel Moth Smoke. It is the second novel by the author. It is credited with the New York Times best selling novel and the Man Booker,the leading literary award, shortlisted novel. The novel is a monologue addressed by Changez, the protagonist, to an unnamed American. An unnamed American feels uneasy with the talk of a bearded Pakistani in the city of Lahore. He feels uneasy and feared as America was at war with the Islamic forces after twin tower attack sensing the fear of the visitor young man, the narrator in the novel soothes him by saying not to worry about his long beard and consider him his friend.
The protagonist of the novel is newly graduate from Princeton New Yorker working as the financial assistant with a large firm as the financial assistant.
Being a pardox in the title the novel centers around a Pakistani born boy who keep on living an American life.
Being allegorical in form the novel rests upon the love story of the Erica, an American girl of elite and a Pakistani born immigrant, Changez, the protagonist. The relationship witnesses many upheavals and the match proves to be inappropriate owning to the backgrounds. Erica can’t get rid of her boyfriend, Chris who dies and can not offer her body completely to Changez. When she sees that she cannot open up with Changez asks him to pretend to be Chris and she imagines him to be Chris and makes love. Erica stands for America and Changez for an immigrant. America doesn’t accept the immigrant as his original identity but only accepts when he adopts the American way of life. Sensing no way out he becomes Chris, who symbolizes an American man, he shares intimate acts with Erica. Despite being a greater bond of love and care between Eric and Channgez their bond remains unfulfilled throughout the novel and they have to part their ways.
Changez experiences a paradoxical relationship with America. He feels exalted and elated at being an American with the graduation from Princeton and takes massive pride in being a New Yorker and enjoying an enviable social status having a girl friend belonging the elite of the society. Paradoxically he equally yearns for his life in Pakistan. He feels misfit in the society as he is not received by his beloved the way he is and he has to conceal his very ideology and act as Chris to satiate the needs of Erica. He laments over being available to America which already teems with the affluence of talent and leaves his own country, motherland, which direly needs talents like his own. This feelings leaves him frustrated.
Apparently being an American and adopting the American ways of life the protagonist can not get his hidden hate for America for whom he has sacrificed very identity of his own, out and feels happy and smiles when he watches twin tower attack abroad in TV and when man keeps such ideas for America the Amrican attitude towards Muslims post attacks to some extent can be justified.
Twin Tower attack has proufounf influence on the plot of the novel, Erica who symbolizes America is over occupied by mental illness after the attack and slowly fades away from the life of Changez. He feels unseen pleasure over the idea of someone bringing America to the downfall. He keeps on his beard and settles permenantly in Pakistan ends up teaching in the university advocating Pakistan cut his ties with America.
The novel shows that how a man who has never been religious in his life turns to be religious post twin tower attacks.
Some of the critics put it that the novel is an attempt to justify the fundamentalism. It highlights that how an individual who has never been a hardcore religious man feels elated during the time when the America needed the sympathy the most. On the contrary it shows very beautifully post 9/11 treatment with Muslims in America. It paints how the Muslims in America who deemed America their dream country and have sacrificed their service for their native lands and put in all their energies for the development of America are put in hot waters and their loyalties questioned and maltreated in every walk of American life. The novel shows how the Muslims in America became the target of legitimate hatred which didn’t end at all.

Being a monologue based upon the technique of the dramatic monologue we know more about the life of the narrator and very less about the listener. Not only we know about the life of the narrator but also the emotional state the narrator had been in and the incident that surrounded the American ambiance pre and post attacks. Mistrust and tension keep their permanent stay through out the narration. The novel is narrative in tone and narration is so well knit that it neither digresses the reader nor does it make reader feel bored. The novelist has succeeded in maintain the curiosity from the beginning to the end. The sense of what next prevails throughout the novel.
The novel contains the limited characters and is in the conversational tone with the simple diction.
Splendid style coupled with simple diction, artistic presentation of the event, narrative style with conversational tone and universal theme make novel a must read for the enthusiasts of the literature in general and novel in particular.

The novel has helped changed the view of Americans regarding the Muslims. Gabrielle Ballot, the staff writer for Literary Hub writes
“Most of American students confess to me they came into class with a negative image of Muslims. Yet the novel showed them something new.”
“Extreme times call for extreme reactions, extreme writing. Hamid has done something extraordinary with this novel.”—Washington Post