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The Reluctant Fundamentalist
The irony of the title followed me around work for the day. The fundamentals are actually the steps and rules American corporate workers must focus on in order to push the company toward success and progress (often onto parts of the world and into other people's lives). It's a kind of work ethic -- in order to ensure progress for gains. What's fascinating is that with a focus on the fundamentals, a person loses sight of the personal and emotional in their own pysche, and so, in a sense they are irradicating a sense of home and culture (as the company is going around the world actually doing this physically). American corporate workers become soldiers of domination.
The author becomes an ambassador to the insights and feelings of people in other parts of the world, namely, on the continent of Asia -- Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. His story is moving and forceful, as a Princeton graduate and a devoted, high earning worker, himself, in New York at a valuations firm. What happens to the blinders strapped on him by the fundamentals when the world trade center is hit and how does this forcefully recalibrate his inner self, his sense of home and his sense of purpose? Very modern and very universal. He invites you to sit down to a traditional Pakistani meal to hear his story unravel. He speaks as though he is a brother seeking home, something anyone can recognize in themselves, and therefore, he makes you feel protective of him and wiser because of him.
