As many of you who read this blog regularly will know, I was left speechless after reading Mohsin Hamid’s novel ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ and this, his debut novel, didn’t disappoint.
This story features Daru, a banker in Lahore who loses his job and falls into a world of drugs and crime. Daru narrates the novel with a growing bitterness towards his former classmates and finds comfort in his best friend’s wife.
Hamid has the wonderful ability of describing places and people. His angry young man is becoming a staple of his novels, akin to JD Sallinger’s Holden Caulfield. This is a well-written, intelligent story. I like the fact that he frames this story of moral decay alongside the 1998 nuclear tests. Another asset is Hamid’s ability to describe Lahore – a place which is almost entirely neglected in literature.
Vic x
‘Moth Smoke’ is available in paperback here: http://amzn.to/yzBbI8
You can download ‘Moth Smoke’ to your Kindle here: http://amzn.to/xL77KB
elementaryvwatson 