Junot Diaz, author of the wildly popular* The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, called The Reluctant Fundamentalist, “One of those achingly assured novels that makes you happy to be a reader.” We here at PostScript agree — the novel, about an American-bred Pakistani man who is steamrolled by anti-Arab sentiment after 9/11, is fantastic. But does it translate as well to the big screen? Take a peek at the trailer and see what you think.
Well, we don’t know how the movie turned out, because, although it was released last week, it hasn’t made it to our city of Birmingham, Alabama, yet. Maybe there’s hope that it’ll be here soon, or maybe we’ll catch it once it hits Red Box and Netflix in a few months. Until then, we’ll tide ourselves over with this preview, and maybe re-read this short but powerful novel, too.
* “Wildly popular” in the book world. That probably translates to “mildly popular” in the world at large.
