Song of a Reformed Headhunter

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here .  THE PROGRESSIVE HOPE On Tuesday, 33-year-old Zohran Kwame Mamdani won the Democratic nomination for the New York City mayoralty,  and he is now the firm favorite to win the election in November. Against billionaire donors and the Democratic establishment who supported the corrupt and scandal-ridden ex-NY governor Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani ran an inspiring, grassroots campaign, firmly focused on making NYC affordable for all, which won the votes not only of the young college-educated, but also of working-class neighborhoods such as Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Sunset Park, and Brighton Beach – all areas that swung rightward in the 2024 presidential election,  according to the Guardian .  The size of his victory in November will determine how far he can overcome the city's powerful vested interests and enact his election promises of free childcare, free buses, rent stabilizatio...

  The novel stakes everything on our interest in the narrator (his lover Erica is a thin, almost cardboard, character). Changez's story—from love to hate for America—is credible, but herein lies the problem. It does not offer any surprising or complex insight into the predicament or psychology of such a character. The same premise treated by Dostoevsky of "Notes from Underground" or even Murakami of "Norwegian Wood" would have resulted in an indelible portrait of mature dissent or youthful wistfulness.