The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist is short and well-written, from a viewpoint we don't often get (though, hey-ho, it's yet another self-absorbed, slightly asocial man).

We liked it, but not as much as the critics. His girlfriend - and her life path - seemed a bit convenient and symbolic (her name is Erica as in am-Erica). The story is left hanging at the end. It's all very allusive, but we're philistines and like events and narrative.

You wouldn't catch Khaled Hosseini doing that in the Kite Runner (but then he was a doctor when he wrote that, not a writer).