the reluctant fundamentalist . south of the border, west of the sun . the little sister

suddenly i cant stop reading novels. i am going through one a day (almost). the last three were ‘the reluctant fundamentalist’ by mohsin hamid. though fairly predictable in terms of plot- after all with a title like that and set up as an encounter between a bearded pakistani and a stocky american in lucknow- there is really no new direction it could have taken. still very readable. the haruki murakami novel ‘ south of the border , west of the sun’ was another first person narrative, this time in the voice of a japanese man who cant ever forget the love he felt for his childhood friend. but the wittiest of them all was what i just put down today. philip marlowe is the cynical classic 50s american private detective in raymond chandlers ‘the little sister’. his voice as the narrator of the noir novel complete with glamorous film stars and seedy gangsters set in a sunburnt and seamy los angeles crackles with quick one liners that i wish i could come up with in regular conversations.