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Our book for the month was Getting Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid. For a book with such a coarsely straightforward title it's a beautiful novel. Mohsin Hamid chooses to write his simple story under the guise of a self-help book. We readers are addressed as “you” but “you” is also the main character, an Asian male we follow from birth to death, as he becomes filthy rich. It’s an inventive method of narration that will likely fail for many people, but I found it inspired in the way it both separates and unites the reader and protagonist. As both the protagonist and an outsider, we can observe the protagonist’s failures with the detachment of someone who knows better, all the while suffering, and occasionally rejoicing, alongside him. We are complicit in his choices and thus, after reading, we feel compelled to evaluate our own choices. Coming from South Asia and having seen at close quarters the migration of the poor from rural areas to cities the story was something that was close to my heart, his style is endearing and thought provoking!!
The ladies at the book club seemed to have found it a good read with a rating of a 7 over 10.
Submitted by Aseema Singhal |
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