- Hardcover: 287 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Paper); First Edition edition (September 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0684813424
- ISBN-13: 978-0684813424
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.7 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,387,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Again cleverly mining the chaos and contradictions of multicultural, postmodern England, Kureishi (The Buddha of Suburbia) follows the turbulent social and spiritual education of an impressionable young Pakistani at an inferior London college, where he struggles with conflicting personal, familial and cultural allegiances. The year is 1989, and the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses has caused an international controversy. Shahid Hasan has left his bourgeois family in Kent to study in the city. As he falls in with a group of crusading young Muslims whose charismatic leader lives next door, Shahid also becomes deeply involved?both intellectually and sexually?with his liberal, humanistic professor Deedee Osgood, who has assigned him a term paper on the rock icon then known as Prince. Irresolute to the point of spinelessness, Shahid allows his beliefs to vacillate until a violent confrontation erupts. Kureishi insightfully probes issues of faith and individualism against a memorable landscape of urban and academic upheaval. While Shahid's lack of conviction and personal loyalty make him a less than likable protagonist, there is ample fervor in the colorful supporting cast, and the author's wit and considerable narrative talents easily embroil the reader in the novel's unfolding drama.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Kureishi's first novel, The Buddha of Suburbia (LJ 3/15/90), won England's Whitbread Prize; he is also famous for writing the screenplay of the film My Beautiful Laundrette (Faber & Faber, 1986). This, his second novel, is a portrait of Shahid Hasan, a young Pakistani student torn between a love affair with his college professor, DeeDee Osgood, and his political work with Islamics fighting racism. Kureishi portrays a bleak, drug-infested world full of offbeat sexual encounters. But like the student he depicts, he asks many questions: Can anywhere really be home for an immigrant living between two cultures? Should friends share similar values? Does wisdom come from what we know, or what we don't know? But this makes the novel sound too planned, too arranged. Instead, it's a rollicking, cross-cultural look at modern London life: sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll seen through the eyes of a minority not sure of what path to follow. Recommended for most collections.?Doris Lynch, Bloomington P.L., Ind.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sex, drugs, rock and roll ..,
By "johnewark" (Hull, East Yorkshire, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Black Album (Paperback)
Yet another winner from Hanif Kureishi as he delves deep into the world of drugs, music and adolescent confusion within theworld of a group of Asian college students. Taking the title from a Prince album, Kureishi explores the interrelations between a working class Asian student heavily influenced by literature and his revolutionary, English lecturer with whom he begins an affair.This is counterbalanced by the threats of an uprising amongst his fellow students who seek to defend themselves against the prejudice they see within neighbouring communities. In a titanic struggle, Shahid Hasan must choose between his friends and his lover, both of whom are cast in the revolutionary Once again Kureishi reinforces his position as one of the best non-British writers in British literature with a rollercoaster novel which moves between the deadly serious and wickedly funny, true genius.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Buddha of Suburbia is a meal -- This is cold takeout curry,
By supastar (brooklyn) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Black Album (Paperback)
But pretty tasty. Shahid is not as interesting as the hero in Buddha (forget his name) was. He's not as smart, doesn't have as much gusto to know and love and live in the world, he's not as daring, but he's good. Furthermore the supporting characters, unlike the father and the rock star from Buddha, are all caracatures, some of which intially show promise, like his neighbor, the leader of a fanatical Muslim group, who originally shows an understanding passionate ear to Shahid, but then all but disappears or becomes a complete mockery. He could have been better. If Shahid was looking for brotherhood and found something attractive in the group, it is never explored. He never seems to care, not care, agree, or disagree, and I don't know whether this was Kureishi's point, or if the book was just poorly written. His lover lacks depth, as does his brother. The drugdealer proves to be boring and not worth reading, and then finally, his family history, his place, is never explored. Nothing is resolved, its a sitcom-type of comedy, but it is often a fun read. The raves and the chases and the experiences are all quite easy and fun to read, but the story never takes off like Buddha. I guess it stays closer to home, its a little more realistic, but overall, the book is much weaker than Buddha of Suburbia.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Polycult in the House (of Lit),
By
This review is from: The Black Album (Paperback)
Funny, how much of the review I hear from folk, have been about the Indian, Pakistan, Islamic tinge on the book. Yea, it's good and stuff that he's writing about that, while much of the mainstream media still shows the myth of London in the 'Notting Hill' Film image (Damm, I use to squat there in the 80's, so I was never more than 5 minutes away from my Saltfish, Redstrip, Dub plates). But for me the strongest images are of the white folks in the book. I remember coming across SO MANY self proclaimed liberal lefties like Hanif covers in the book. Middle class English folk, who really want to make things better for us, colonials as long as they are in charge. This smug paternalistic attitude (gosh, the BBC just came to my mind) jumps out at you in funny funny incidents. In this novel, I reckon the 'anthropologists lense' (come on now, many do read his book to get an insider's glimse of a world they see a closed to them) is turned on the 'anthroplogists' themselves pretty well. This would explain why one of my friends reacted badly to it, ragging on about how she especially dislike 'that woman professor in the book' - For me, that female lecturer Hanif depicts was typical of my 'multiculti' friend.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
