The Buddha of Suburbia

by Hanif Kureishi

Overview

Winner of the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel

"There was one copy going round our school like contraband. I read it in one sitting ... I'd never read a book about anyone remotely like me before."— Zadie Smith

"My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost..."

The hero of Hanif Kureishi's debut novel is dreamy teenager Karim, desperate to escape suburban South London and experience the forbidden fruits which the 1970s seem to offer. When the unlikely opportunity of a life in the theatre announces itself, Karim starts to win the sort of attention he has been craving - albeit with some rude and raucous results.

With the publication of Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi landed into the literary landscape as a distinct new voice and a fearless taboo-breaking writer. The novel inspired a ground-breaking BBC series featuring a soundtrack by David Bowie.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140131680
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/01/1991
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	523,108
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Hanif Kureishi was born and brought up in Kent. He read philosophy at King's College, London. In 1981 he won the George Devine Award for his plays Outskirts and Borderline, and in 1982 he was appointed Writer-in-Residence at the Royal Court Theatre. In 1984 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. His second screenplay Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987) was followed by London Kills Me (1991) which he also directed. The Buddha of Suburbia won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel in 1990 and was made into a four-part drama series by the BBC in 1993. His version of Brecht's Mother Courage has been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. His second novel, The Black Album, was published in 1995. 

His first collection of short stories, Love in a Blue Time, was published in 1997. His story My Son the Fanatic, from that collection, was adapted for film and released in 1998. Intimacy, his third novel, was published in 1998, and a film of the same title, based on the novel and other stories by the author, was released in 2001 and won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival. His play Sleep With Me premièred at the Royal National Theatre in 1999. His second collection of stories, Midnight All Day, was published in 2000. Gabriel's Gift, his fourth novel, was published in 2001. The Body and Seven Stories and Dreaming and Scheming, a collection of essays, were published in 2002.

His screenplay The Mother was directed by Roger Michell and released in 2003. In 2004 he published his play When The Night Begins and a memoir, My Ear At His Heart. A second collection of essays, The Word and the Bomb, followed in 2005. His screenplay Venus was directed by Roger Michell in 2006. His novel Something to Tell You was published in 2008.

In July 2009 his adaptation of his novel, The Black Album, opened at the National Theatre, prior to a nation-wide tour. In 2010 his Collected Stories were published.He has been awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Editorial Reviews

"...brilliant...fascinating and infuriating...Kureishi has an extraordinary gift for creating vivid characters." — The Boston Globe 

'A wonderful novel. I doubt I will read a funnier one, or one with more heart, this year, possibly this decade.' —Angela Carter, Guardian

"One of the best comic novels of growing up, and one of the sharpest satires on race relations in this country that I've ever read."— Independent on Sunday

'Brilliantly funny. A fresh, anarchic and deliciously unrestrained novel.' Sunday Times (London)

'A distinctive and talented voice, blithe, savvy, alive and kicking.' Hermione Lee, Independent (London)

"delectable. . . . Resembling a modern-day Tom Jones , this is an astonishing book, full of intelligence and elan.'' — Publishers Weekly

"This remarkably fine first novel from the author of the screenplays My Beautiful Launderette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid is a freewheeling tour through the London of the 1970's—a London as vice- and class-ridden as that of a Hogarth engraving."— Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Midway through the first page of this delectable first novel by screenwriter Kureishi ( My Beautiful Laundrette ; Sammy and Rosie Get Laid ), the 17-year-old narrator--``My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost''--observes that the plodding existence he has shared with his Indian father and English mother is about to undergo a disorienting change. The catalyst is the father, a civil servant and self-proclaimed guru whose falling in love with one of his followers precipitates events that propel his restless son out of the suburbs and into the fast lane. Karim relates these developments in a series of erotically charged episodes no less charming for their undercurrent of desperation. Though continually yanked about among disparate cultures, classes, colors, even genders--``I felt it would be heartbreaking to have to choose one or the other, like having to decide between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones''--Karim never loses his capacity for affectionate mockery. Resembling a modern-day Tom Jones , this is an astonishing book, full of intelligence and elan. 25,000 first printing; first serial to Mother Jones; QPB alternate;author tour. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Kureishi is the author of two controversial screenplays, My Beautiful Launderette (1985) and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987). This novel, written in a similar vein, deals with many of the same themes: father-son relations, punk rock, bisexuality, and class and racial prejudices in England. The story is told through the eyes of Karim Amir, ``an Englishman born and bred, almost.'' Karim is a Holden Caulfield-like character who observes and analyzes the shortcomings of his society as he moves out of London's suburbs into the larger world. The book provides a witty, satiric view of English popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s, but it is fairly thin on plot and character development. This may be one instance where the movie version will actually be better than the book.-- William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY

Library Journal