
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
I’ve just finished reading ‘the reluctant fundamentalist’ and must type a review whilst it is still fresh in my mind.
The cover states that its been nominated for a ‘booker prize’. I do not know what a ‘booker prize’ is, but sense that it would do well to award this book the title, rather than muck about ‘deciding’ on who else should be awarded the merit.
‘The reluctant fundatmentalist’ is an astounding read. The first I have ever experienced – I hope it is the only one like it in the world and it becomes internationally recognised for conversational viewpoint. Argh. I’m spoiling the surpirse!
The title is the conversation of one man – not so much written from the first perspective (which indeed that is true) but more than that, it is written with no other characters or conversations other than that from within the memory of our teller.
All the conversation is directed towards one man, that never speaks throughout the entire book, and we only recieve splashes of description from other people about the scenery.
The story – if I had to plot its shape on a piece of paper – would resemble a steady inclination rising from left to right, building and building, and not indicating at all where it is leading – we can guess, as I did, but I failed to see how it would end. But end it did, and the story finally revealed within the last few pages, and the tale is literally wrapped up only in the final sentences.
This is a rare read. I can see why it was ‘nominated’ – and I can also see why it deserves to win. I don’t know if it has already, but if not, then I am certainly interested to know who on earth can better a plot like this one.
This book has restored my faith in simple ideas told really well, are better than all the complex plots you can think of. I say to anyone that is wrestling with a complex script or novel, to read this and you’ll instantly understand where you’re going wrong.
A short read, double line spacing and only 200 pages – this is worth your hard earned cash and is memorable and re-readable.