A Conversation With: Pakistani Author Mohsin Hamid

Courtesy of Jillian Edelstein Mohsin Hamid.

One of the most anticipated book releases this year is “How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia” by the Lahore-born writer Mohsin Hamid. The tome, which debuted March 5, is written in a cheeky self-help format and tells the rags-to-riches story of a man in modern Asia. 

Fame came for Mr. Hamid, who spent part of his childhood in California, with his second novel, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and will be released as a Mira Nair-directed feature film next month. His first book “Moth Smoke” was a finalist for the high-profile PEN/Hemingway Prize, but writing wasn’t his first career. After attending Princeton Uniersity and Harvard Law School, he worked as a management consultant with McKinsey and Company and then as a brand consultant before turning to his true passion full-time.

Hamid currently lives in Lahore with his wife Zahra and their two young children. He recently spoke to India Ink about his latest work, why he settled down in Pakistan and how he first started writing.

Q.

What was the inspiration for this latest book

A.

There wasn’t a single inspiration, but I wanted to take on a pretty big canvas and look at a broader section of society unlike my first two novels. I thought about what kind of novel would let me do that. The self-help book form started as a joke with my friend, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

Q.

Vogue named your book along with HBO’s new season of Girls and Tina Fey hosting the Golden Globes as one of the 13 cultural event! s to look forward to in 2013. How does it feel to be such a cultural phenomenon

A.

I am definitely the odd one out among the big names. And I don’t think I am a cultural phenomenon. I met author Russell Banks at a literary festival, and he told me that you don’t really know what your books have done until 10 years after they have been published. That means I will have to wait a decade to see if it has really had an impact.

Courtesy of Penguin Books The book cover of “How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia,” by Mohsin Hamid.

Q.

The central character in your book hasa spectacular rise and some setbacks that come with his wealth. Do you feel his journey is reflective of the many real life people who have been in his position

A.

I think if you take all of the steps of his rise together- from a village to a big city to getting rich- it’s actually quite unusual for an Asian to make all these steps. They might make one or two steps- like move from a village to a city or rise from poverty to lower middle class- but not take such a big leap.

Q.

Is his journey based on real life person

A.

No, it was from my composites from thousands of people.

Q.

What do you think is the biggest lesson a reader can take away from it

A.

There is a huge sense of loneliness as people leave villages and move to cities. It’s hard to find that human connection as you move away from where you started.

Q.

Ho! w did you! get into writing

A.

I took a couple of creative writing classes with Joyce Carol Oates at Princeton University, and in my senior year there, I took a long fiction workshop with Toni Morrison. I fell in love with it.

Q.

Why did you decide to go to law school after graduating

A.

I had to make a living. I didn’t know how I was going to support myself as a writer. I still wonder about it. When I went to Harvard Law School, I discovered quickly that I didn’t want to be a lawyer but found my way back to writing and am lucky I got support along the way. In my third year, I told my professor I didn’t want to write a law school thesis but want to write a novel about a trial, and he supported me. That turned out to be “Moth Smoke.”

When I went to McKinsey, I asked if I could consult for nine months and take three months off to write which my bosses agreed to. Then when I worked as a brand consultant in Londonand asked to work part-time so I could write, they also agreed. It was then I wrote “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” and when it became a bestseller, I felt like I could finally become a full-time writer.

Q.

Why have you chosen to ultimately settle in Lahore

A.

My wife and I first lived in London when we got married, but we both grew up in Lahore in an extended family context. Our parents and siblings still lived there and once we had kids, we knew we wanted to live there so they could also grow up with that.

Q.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is soon to be released as a feature film. What was your role, if any, in the movie production

A.

I had a significant role. A number of directors had approached about making a movie out of the book, but when Mira Nair approached me, I was already such a fan of her work. I knew she was a brilliant filmmaker, and when met, we just clicked.

She a! sked me to work with her assistant to co-write the first draft of the screenplay, and she would call me on subsequent drafts to get input from me. I also spent a lot of time in Delhi where they were filming because a lot of the Lahore scenes were shot there, and she wanted to be sure that the scenes were portraying a realistic image of Lahore.

Q.

What’s your opinion of the finished product Does it accurately reflect the book you wrote

A.

I think it’s very good. There are important differences from the book. For example, the book is incredibly ambiguous as to what is going on, and the movie has much more of that traditional thriller structure. I didn’t want to insist complete fidelity to the novel as long the film had integrity which it does.

Q.

What’s next for you

A.

I will travel the world with this book which will take probably most of the year. Next year, I will sink my teet into a new novel. I have a notebook with about ten different ideas of what it might be about but no set plans yet.