![]() ![]() He appears to have been something of an enigma until his reaction to the attacks–a sudden smile–pierces the shell. Fresh out of Princeton, he was living in New York City and working as a financial analyst. ![]() In 2001, as he explains, Changez was hardly a radical. That monologue is the substance of Hamid’s elegant and chilling little novel. Changez happens upon the American in Lahore, invites him to tea and tells him the story of his life in the months just before and after the attacks. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased.” “I stared as one–and then the other–of the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center collapsed. While on a business trip to Manila, he turned on the television in his room and saw the towers fall. When I was a third of the way through Mohsin Hamid’s second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the narrator, a young Pakistani man named Changez, tells the American stranger about how he first learned of the destruction of the World Trade Center. ![]()
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![]() He and his friends go on a quest eventually leading into a road trip to find Margo. Then, Margo disappears, and Q decides that she’s left clues for him to follow so he can find her. Until one night when Margo asks him for help in getting back at her so-called friends and ex, and he becomes bold and has fun and let’s go of some inhibitions. Q has two good friends, Margo has several…AND a jock boyfriend. Where Q is kind of nerdy, Margo is popular. Margo is a vivacious, curvy Jewish girl in their small Florida town. ![]() He’s had an unrequited crush on his once-childhood friend, Margo Roth Spiegelman. The main character, Quentin (or Q as he’s called), is a shy high school senior. My focus, now though, is on Paper Towns.Īs a teen novel, Paper Towns is solid. ![]() So my expectations were high for his three other books: Looking for Alaska (optioned potentially out in 2016), Paper Towns (obviously this is out on DVD now), and An Abundance of Katherines (optioned, but no plans to film). While there were some flaws with that book, I overall loved it. My first introduction to John Green was with The Fault in Our Stars. His books are bestsellers, and almost all of them have been optioned for film (or are films already). ![]() To many people, John Green can do no wrong. ![]() ![]() On this level, it certainly makes for pure entertainment but dig a little deeper and it's also a poignant reflection of the times we live in, evoking a strong sense of place, moral choices, immoral certainties, human nature and the power of faith to pull us through the darkest of times. ![]() From the opening chapter with Phillip Sherrod, her persona always feels authentic whilst Khubiar gets the pitch and momentum just right. With far too many novels in the genre centring on clichéd protagonists it's refreshing to see an author break the mould with an intelligent lead who has genuine depth. Smart, fast paced and soundly executed, The Eagle and the Child: The Child, sees Khubiar taking a rivetingly plausible central theme, and delivering a power packed romantic thriller. ![]() Book Viral: "Strongly recommended." Our review. ![]() |