Buying Anti-American
Originally published on National Review Online, May 14, 2007
And the annoying whining in The Reluctant Fundamentalist isn’t even authentic.
By Ann Marlowe
The commercial success and critical praise of Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist — currently on the New York Times best-seller list — are an ill omen for those who support the ideals of liberal society, not only here but in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. As other writers notice its success, we can expect others to follow in its path of Islamic minstrelism, selling the Western audience what it expects to hear from angry Muslims. In this case, the merchant is a thoroughly Westernized, privileged beneficiary of American largesse.
On the Powells.com website, Hamid disingenuously muses, “People often ask me if I am the book’s Pakistani protagonist. I wonder why they never ask if I am his American listener. After all, a novel can often be a divided man’s conversation with himself.”
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