Post: #1

I picked up this book at an airport and did not put it down till I finished it. It's outstanding.

The story follows a 22 year old Pakistani-American who graduates from Princeton and lands a job at a prestigious management consultancy. He dispassionately notes how a White America which perceives itself as tolerant is actually anything but. Despite all this he is a a self confessed 'lover of America'. On an assignment in Chile , 9/11 occurs and he witnesses it on TV and describes his first thoughts which are chilling. Upon landing back in America he writes about how he witnesses American ignorance , arrogance and jingoism form a combustible mixture and how he finds himself on the fringes of a society he calls home. In between there is a pretty interesting 'red pill' story about his relationship with an American woman.

Finally disillusioned with life he returns to his home country where he gives lectures on how American imperialism and intervention serve no purpose in the long run citing examples like the Congo where the Americans installed a dictator after overthrowing a democratically elected leader who eradicated the rule of law leading the country to descend into anarchy and promptly leaving when it no longer served American interests.

This is enough to convince the CIA he is a 'radical' and they chase him after an American is kidnapped in Lahore leading to him explaining himself

Fascinating book.

Post: #2

Great book. Shit movie

Post: #3

(04-05-2015 06:38 PM)zayfran Wrote:  I picked up this book at an airport and did not put it down till I finished it. It's outstanding.

The story follows a 22 year old Pakistani-American who graduates from Princeton and lands a job at a prestigious management consultancy. He dispassionately notes how a White America which perceives itself as tolerant is actually anything but. Despite all this he is a a self confessed 'lover of America'. On an assignment in Chile , 9/11 occurs and he witnesses it on TV and describes his first thoughts which are chilling. Upon landing back in America he writes about how he witnesses American ignorance , arrogance and jingoism form a combustible mixture and how he finds himself on the fringes of a society he calls home. In between there is a pretty interesting 'red pill' story about his relationship with an American woman.

Finally disillusioned with life he returns to his home country where he gives lectures on how American imperialism and intervention serve no purpose in the long run citing examples like the Congo where the Americans installed a dictator after overthrowing a democratically elected leader who eradicated the rule of law leading the country to descend into anarchy and promptly leaving when it no longer served American interests.

This is enough to convince the CIA he is a 'radical' and they chase him after an American is kidnapped in Lahore leading to him explaining himself

Fascinating book.

In other words he lives in "White America" and gets accepted to a university 99.9% of "White America" would die to attend, then he gets an elite job that 99.9% of "White America" would die to have. But he bitches and moans about how badly he's being treated and how evil "White America" is. Dude sounds like a ungrateful POS. Good riddance to bad rubbish, hopefully somebody more deserving now holds that lucrative consulting gig.

Post: #4

Fast Eddie is indeed Fast and beat me to it. Glad to hear that ingrate is no longer on US soil.

Post: #5

(04-05-2015 09:38 PM)Fast Eddie Wrote:  

(04-05-2015 06:38 PM)zayfran Wrote:  I picked up this book at an airport and did not put it down till I finished it. It's outstanding.

The story follows a 22 year old Pakistani-American who graduates from Princeton and lands a job at a prestigious management consultancy. He dispassionately notes how a White America which perceives itself as tolerant is actually anything but. Despite all this he is a a self confessed 'lover of America'. On an assignment in Chile , 9/11 occurs and he witnesses it on TV and describes his first thoughts which are chilling. Upon landing back in America he writes about how he witnesses American ignorance , arrogance and jingoism form a combustible mixture and how he finds himself on the fringes of a society he calls home. In between there is a pretty interesting 'red pill' story about his relationship with an American woman.

Finally disillusioned with life he returns to his home country where he gives lectures on how American imperialism and intervention serve no purpose in the long run citing examples like the Congo where the Americans installed a dictator after overthrowing a democratically elected leader who eradicated the rule of law leading the country to descend into anarchy and promptly leaving when it no longer served American interests.

This is enough to convince the CIA he is a 'radical' and they chase him after an American is kidnapped in Lahore leading to him explaining himself

Fascinating book.

In other words he lives in "White America" and gets accepted to a university 99.9% of "White America" would die to attend, then he gets an elite job that 99.9% of "White America" would die to have. But he bitches and moans about how badly he's being treated and how evil "White America" is. Dude sounds like a ungrateful POS. Good riddance to bad rubbish, hopefully somebody more deserving now holds that lucrative consulting gig.

It sounds like he was experiencing the social isolation and anomie that many in modern society do... but instead of pretending it doesn't exist, or treating it with beer and TV, he assumed that American society secretly hated him. Everyone else camouflages their discontent after all, so he felt alone. Foreigners are understandably more prone to thinking that way - especially Middle Eastern ones, because paranoia runs deep in modern Middle Eastern culture.

I haven't read this book, but I did read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man which sounds broadly similar, minus the Islam/foreigner angle.

Post: #6

I read the book last month and posted a very short review here.

Quote:There are moments when it feels like a leftist's fantasy: an ordinary man who loves America but after 9/11 experiences harassment at the airport and on the street for being Muslim, observes the decisions of the U.S. to invade Iraq, and picking up on the entitled attitudes of (white) Americans decides to become radicalized.

Yet there were some interesting passages when the dude falls in love with a girl who has some combination of bipolar and depression (my diagnosis not the book's) and is emotionally and sexually evasive. This seemed like a legitimate enough reason to push a young man over the edge and do something stupid so I was intrigued. There is plenty of great analysis on manosphere sites about sexually frustrated young guys acting out. The character is blue pill in his beliefs about women and that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

My major complaint is that there is next to no mention of religion in a book called The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

The reader has no insight as to what factor faith plays in this man's decision to become an enemy of the West.

There were some passages like when Changez claims he felt perverse elation at watching the WTC collapse that I wanted the book to further explore. In fact, that was the primary reason I bought the book, to see what led him to think that way. But he basically says "I felt joy and I didn't know why."


The main characters thoughts about and interactions with a woman who even a man with game would have difficulty with was what kept this book interesting for me.

Post: #7

(04-06-2015 12:09 AM)Lucky Wrote:  There were some passages like when Changez claims he felt perverse elation at watching the WTC collapse that I wanted the book to further explore. In fact, that was the primary reason I bought the book, to see what led him to think that way. But he basically says "I felt joy and I didn't know why."

I think he did though.

He said he admired the planning it would have taken and more importantly the symbolic act that an America that had acted with impunity in the last couple of decades had been brought to it's knees in front of the world. He compared it to a David and Goliath moment.

I can't recall if this was the movie or book interpretation though.

EDIT : He is not an enemy of the West btw.