The narrative is framed as a suspenseful monologue delivered in a café in Lahore. Changez is a high-achieving Pakistani man who initially embraces the American corporate dream. However, after graduating from Princeton and securing a prestigious job in New York, his sense of belonging is shattered by the events of 9/11. At that moment, he is in Manila for work. On his return flight to New York, he is detained at the airport.
As he begins to experience increasing alienation and suspicion, Changez can no longer tolerate the situation and decides to leave his job in New York and return to Pakistan. He is speaking to an American “Stranger”, an enigmatic listener. Through Changez’s address to this unnamed American listener, Mohsin Hamid highlights the irony of a meritocratic system that demands total assimilation while simultaneously viewing outsiders with distrust.
[Hamid, M. (2007). The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Penguin Books.]
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/14/mohsin-hamid-reluctant-fundamentalist-bookclub
https://www.cccb.org/en/w/activities/literature-to-dismantle-hatred
