The Noose of Nostalgia

What I found particularly interesting about Hamid’s book was the constant theme of nostalgia that ran through it and the fact that the ever present nostalgia was never a good attribute.  The character Erica’s nostalgia for her dead boyfriend completely debilitates her; a mirror image of this nostalgia for something that has past can be seen to be mirrored in both Changez’s family as they mourn the descent of their family from fortune to pulling their purse strings tight and the American people’s nostalgia as its diverse and complex society crumbles as Changez describes the pull of New York back into a state of mind that would have belonged during the Second World War era.

Erica is very important piece in this narrative.  She represents the American allure Changez is so infatuated with when he first comes to the United States.  Many times her physicality is described; she is lean and muscular, the picture of health, and she is beautiful.  But like America she does not open immediately to outsiders.  When Changez does become more familiar in New York so does he become more familiar with Erica.  It is not accident that after the terrorist attack Erica suffers from a mental breakdown.  She is the embodiment of America those twelve years ago.  She was young and thriving and physically strong, but mentally she was incredibly weak and as her mental state crumbled so did the mental state of America.  The American people became vicious and triggered by the smallest of things, like a tan man with a beard.  Changez’s choice to not kiss Erica good bye at the sanitarium is a foreshadowing of his decision to let his relationship with America come to an end.  But what was quite ingenious was letting his novel end on the same sinister but ambiguous note as Erica’s disappearance.