Princeton made everything possible for me. That, in an admittedly longwinded fashion, is how I think, looking back, about Princeton. In describing his wide-eyed first experiences of Princeton, Changez begins to hint towards a later change in perspective here he only lets on to the fact that he recognized American culture for what it is-and more specifically, recognized Princeton as one of the bastions of this culture-without revealing the critical stance he would take towards it. Looking back now, I see the power of that system, pragmatic and effective, like so much else in America. In the beginning of his conversation with the American, Changez deftly pivots from small talk (asking about where he is from and where he went to school) to storytelling by saying that he requires greater elaboration to answer the question in full-even though this is not exactly what his questioner was wondering about in the first place. What did I think of Princeton? Well, the answer to that question requires a story. At odds with the American corporate disdain for the old and the obsolete, Changez displays a love for things not in spite of but precisely because of their decline. While visiting Valparaiso on a business trip, Changez finds that the melancholic atmosphere of the once great but now declining city exerts a strong attraction to him. The ruins proclaim the building was beautiful. What Changez discovers, however, is that working by the motto 'Focus on the fundamentals,' one has to suppress much of one's emotional sensitivities and broader political awareness. Underwood Samson operates on the highest levels of professionalism, focusing exclusively on efficiency and productivity. See /privacy for more information.Focus on the fundamentals. I Pledge Allegiance, by Karen Olsson for The New York Times – 'All That Man Is,' and a Lot He Is Not, in David Szalay's View, by Dwight Garner for The New York Times – ‘All That Man Is’, by David Szalay, review by Christopher Tayler for the Financial Times –

If on a winter’s night a traveller by Italo Calvino The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré Games and Rituals and Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Exit West and The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid You can get in by Joel Grove and production by Pandora SykesĪll That Man Is and London and the South-East by David Szalay We discuss Mohsin Hamid's ability to condense big ideas - what makes a fundamentalist? What biases are you bringing to the story? - into readable prose (and his other magical novels like Exit West) and David Szalay's attempt to condense modern masculinity from teen to OAP, as it roves Europe - in one book. For Episode 4 of Book Chat, we travel back just a decade or so, to Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and David Szalay's short stories in a novel, All That Man Is.

Hamid the reluctant fundamentalist