The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West

Initially, this author got on my nerves. I was so irritated, I fired off a review before I finished it. To anyone who has read the whole thing, I sounded like a jackass. Fortunately, it's a quick read, so I can amend my error.It is charming, interesting, humane and funny.If everyone in the world was this wise,we'd all be a lot better off.

This is a delightful book. Got the book from the library and loved it so much, decided I had to have a copy of my own. The author covers a very serious matter without offending any race or religion and his sense of humour is great. Everyone should read this book

A great read, and the book was in perfect condition.

What I've read so far is interesting. The author gets his point across with a great sense of humor.

This book came to me as an unexpected gift, directly from the author in an email sent on New Year’s eve 2017 that read: "Dear Rhett, I just came across your article about 'Return of the Saint' and the Jaguar XJS. Please send me a mailing address with contact telephone number and I will have Amazon send you a copy of my book, which I think you will enjoy. Happy New Year! Peace and best wishes, Imran" Being of a certain vintage, I was one of those young men who was so taken with Ian Ogilvy as Simon Templar and his white Jaguar XJ-S that, when I was old enough, I bought a white XJ-S of my own. Apparently most men of my vintage who watched Return of The Saint as children settle for the Corgi toy version that came out at the time the show was running, but there are a few of us actually try to live the dream and I suspect this was the connection Mr. Ahmad may have sensed.I felt some trepidation both because he was a stranger and because I was worried I might not care for his writing (and then what would I say?) but whatever anxiety I felt about reading this book, I needn't have worried! The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West by Imran Ahmad was the most engrossing book I've read in years. I couldn't put it down. I even went so far as to buy the Kindle version, so I could sneak in a few pages whenever I’d get a break at work or waiting somewhere in a queue.While my upbringing was very different, I too grew up feeling like an outsider trying desperately to crack the code of belonging. I deeply resonated with his upset at injustice, his rich inner life as he sought to better understand his relationship with God and the universe, his confusion when the messy reality of the world came in conflict with the neat and tidy lessons he’d been taught and, like him, I initially looked to the television versions of Simon Templar and the literary incarnation of James Bond to help inform what kind of man I was going to grow into. Again, like Mr. Ahmad, I met with limited success.Each chapter represents one year. At roughly chapter/age four or five, the tense changes from past to present as the narrative shifts from setting the stage, to Mr. Ahmad’s own, internal experience. This has the effect of putting the reader very much into the mind of the younger versions of Mr. Ahmad (mostly) without the benefit of the author's hindsight, which creates a kind of intimacy with the narrative but also suspense, because while you get the sense from the warmth, self-awareness and good humor in the voice of the author that he experienced a transformation of some kind, the reader has no way of knowing if or how that will occur. This is a hugely effective narrative choice because it makes Mr. Ahmad’s experience into *our* experience but it relies very heavily on there being a payoff of some kind at the end. Your mileage may vary but I found the payoff to be only partially satisfying. This was not enough to cause me to lower my rating from 5 stars, because I so very much enjoyed the sense of growing up with Mr. Ahmad by way of the text and I still felt powerfully moved at the end, but I think there needs to be a sequel or two to tie up loose threads- there’s just too many compelling characters and twists and turns in the plot not to return to finish telling their stories. Interestingly, one of the major characters in the book calls this out in an oddly meta moment.Because much of the richness of the author’s narrative comes from his fish-out-of-water experience as a Pakistani Muslim coming of age in a very white, largely Christian U.K., he goes to great lengths to explain enough about the scripture and cultures of Islam and Christianity, along with their regional variations, that the reader can understand exactly the nature of the his internal conflicts. I grew up with a more secular world view (that was no less fraught with existential angst, I might add) that lead to me being something of an existentialist with Buddhist leanings and an agnostic curiosity, so I found the educational elements on Islam to be enlightening and refreshingly relateable. I don’t see myself converting to Islam any time soon but I do have a better understanding about how my Muslim friends might experience the world. Which, given how divided the world is politically speaking, this can only be for the good.This was a fascinating and joyful book to read and I’m sorry it’s over. I hope Mr. Ahmad writes more books because I would dearly love to return to his literary universe. I feel like I know him now, purely through the strength, vulnerability and depth of his writing. And I will miss him.Highly recommended.

Imran Ahmad is, by all self-reported appearances, an eminently decent chap. It's hard to imagine a decenter chap, really (he is, quite possibly, THE perfect gentleman). And just when -- round about the tour of his mid-twenties -- it seems he's scaled the very heights of decency, the whirlwind tour of his next couple decades through the closing chapters of TPG reveal the decency of his early years to have been a mere false peak. Ahmad, now at 50+, is about the swellest best-intentioned guy ever. I'm not saying any of this tongue-in-cheek, by the way. IA really seems like a great guy. And I wish him all the best -- especially on his perennial quest for a soul-mate. If ever a guy deserved a like-minded gal, it's Imran Ahmad. So why only 3 stars for his memoir? Because, in my view, it's a pretty trifling memoir. True, Ahmad writes well. True, he's sometimes amusing (though I can't see what anyone finds laugh-out-loud funny about this book). True, he gives some impression of what it's like to live life at the intersection of clashing cultures. That impression, though, is a fairly shallow one and, as TPG wears on, more and more redundantly drawn out. A LOT of TPG -- especially in its second half -- is dedicated to IA's search for love and meaning. Granted, there's no end of things one might say about love and meaning. To this reader though, it felt like IA kept saying the same few things about each. What he had to say was heartfelt, earnest, and reasonable enough. It just wasn't all that compelling across the span of a 333 page memoir. That said, TPG is a very quick-reading and relatively interesting book. And I, for one, did take pleasure in spending some time, as it were, in the company of such a fine fellow. I'm not sure I'd rush out to pick up a copy of IA's next book, but I wish him very best in his future authorial endeavors, as well as on his personal journey.

Great view posed by the author on life as an outsider trying to fit in.Ending a bit rushed with hasty or little resolutions, but the read was enjoyable throughout

excellent read. Very thoughtful discussion of various religions active today. A keeper, after I share it with friends. I am an agnostic and I found much to admire in this book.

A well-written book that integrates some key tenets of the Muslim faith and Christianity in an easy to read manner. Most Muslims growing up in the West could definitely relate to Ahmad's experiences and thought processes.