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The Buddha of Suburbia Paperback – 30 May 1991
by Hanif Kureishi (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,525 ratings
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.
Print length
288 pages
Language
English
Publisher
Penguin
Publication date
30 May 1991
Reading age
18 years and up
Product description
Review
"...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
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.
Product details
Publisher : Penguin; Reprint edition (30 May 1991)
Language : English
Paperback : 288 pages
ISBN-10 : 014013168X
ISBN-13 : 978-0140131680
Reading age : 18 years and up
Dimensions : 19.86 x 13.06 x 1.42 cmBest Sellers Rank: 789,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)14,578 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
17,486 in Family Saga Fiction (Books)
41,919 in Contemporary Literature & FictionCustomer Reviews:
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,525 ratings
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Hanif Kureishi
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4.2 out of 5 stars
Top reviews from Australia
sss1389
5.0 out of 5 stars Witty refreshing readReviewed in Australia on 28 February 2017
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Good read, will keep you grinning/sniggering throughout. If you are looking for a light read with a witty narrative, give this one a go. Hanif kureishi has a way of gripping your interest through his writing and will keep your head buried in his book. I look forward to reading more of his books in future.
One person found this helpful
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cristy c
4.0 out of 5 stars FunnyReviewed in Australia on 7 May 2014
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This book started out very funny, had me laughing out loud and continued that way until the middle part. Then it seemed to get bogged down with sex and stopped being about the Buddha of Suburbia and more about the writer. It picked up at the end again, but the middle part dragged on and I kept thinking I wish the author would get back on the subject.
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sally tarbox
4.0 out of 5 stars "I was looking for trouble, any kind of movement, action and sexual interest I could find"Reviewed in Australia on 28 August 2017
An entertaining tale of a young mixed-race Londoner - father a Muslim Indian, mother English- growing up in the 1970s. When his father is taken up by the artistic Eva, and becomes something of a local celebrity with his yoga seminars, our hero, Karim, sees a new and exciting world opening up, even as he pities his mother, left behind. The whole feel of the era is well-drawn - the craze for the new and exotic, the sex, drugs and music, but also the racism and political discontent.
There are some great characters here: the strong-minded Jamila, long-suffering immigrant Changez, and many pretentious types whom Karim encounters through the theatre.
Enjoyable read.
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Circe Bosch
5.0 out of 5 stars Real and movingReviewed in France on 19 November 2022
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Wonderful account of life, worry and humor. Keeps you light on your toes and makes you want to celebrate every moment of this roller coaster life!
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Rocky Macy
5.0 out of 5 stars Hanif Kureishi is an Amazing Writer!Reviewed in the United States on 8 November 2020
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Having recently come across the 1990's film, "My Beautiful Laundrette" streaming on a subscription channel a few weeks ago, I was inspired to delve back into other writing's by the movie's screenwriter, Hanif Kureishi. That connected me with another of his excellent works, the novel "The Buddha of Suburbia" which I had originally read not long after it was first published in 1990. I ordered the book, reread it, and was perhaps more impressed this time than I was with the first reading all those years ago.
The central character of his novel is Karim Amir, a young man who is just finishing his public schooling and whose parents hope that he is headed toward enrolling in a university. Karim is an English youth living in the suburbs of London with his English mother, "Mum," a plump, unassuming woman who manages the house and takes care of the needs of Karim and his younger brother, Ali, and their father, Haroon. Mum also works part-time at a shoe store to help supplement the family income. Karim and Ali have never been to India, the birthplace of their father, but they have dark skin and Indian features and are home in the British Indian community.
Haroon, Karim's father, is the title character of the novel. He was born in Bombay as one of the younger children of a wealthy doctor, and emigrated to Britain on his own as a teen. Haroon, who grew up privileged with a full assortment of servants, found work in England as a paper-pusher in a government office, but when he is home he is content to relax and let Mum wait on him hand-and foot. As the story opens, Haroon has been studying the teachings of the Buddha and has been attending upscale parties hosted by his new friend, Eva. Haroon sits on the floor at these parties and, in the character of the Buddha, begins imparting Indian and Buddhist pholosophies on the entranced guests.
Karim, who has a habit of falling enthusiastically in love with women or men, as long as they are interesting and attractive, is in love with his old schoolmate, Charlie, who is Eva's son. Charlie is a singer with his own band - and he has dreams of becoming a rock star on the order of David Bowie. One evening after Karim and Charlie have had a close, but not quite overtly sexual, encounter in Charlie's room in his mother's attic, and while Haroon has been doing his Buddha thing for Eva's guests downstairs, Karim goes outside for a solitary walk in Eva's garden. It is there that he see's Haroon and Eva having sex on a garden bench, and it is there that Karim realizes that his life will soon change forever.
"The Buddha of Suburbia" is a beautifully written story that explores life and love in Great Britain as the country is slipping from it Victorian grandeur into the graffiti-sprayed world of modern times. It explores the suburban existence, immigrant communities, life in London and New York, the theatre scene, rock culture, communal living, the drug culture, and life in "squats." But perhaps more than anything else, "The Buddha of Suburbia" is a treatise on race and culture written at a time when walls appeared to be crumbling.
Hanif Kureishi is an amazing writer. You will not be disappointed in any of his works.
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Tom Gray
5.0 out of 5 stars Social Satire - Even More Important TodayReviewed in Canada on 12 March 2018
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This is a very funny novel. it is also a very insightful novel. it was first published in 1990. yet its theme is even more important today in this era of populism and nativism. The fundamental purpose of this novel is to demonstrate issues of ethnicity, race and personal identity. The novel examines the mutability of race and culture. Karim, the protagonist, lives in London as the son of a Indian businessman immigrant and a native born English mother. Beyond the issues of race and culture, Karim is also affected by the English class system. The novel is quite effective in this. It mixes humour with quite effective social examination.
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Mv
5.0 out of 5 stars Bel libro, appassionanteReviewed in Italy on 11 February 2018
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Bellissimo libro, consigliato, è divertente e irriverente, la storia intriga e si entra in sintonia con il protagonista, le sue vicende e gli altri personaggi. Un bel tuffo dell'Inghilterra del periodo, dal punto di vista di un adolescente da una parte confuso, in balia di mode e tendenze giovanili, e dall'altra volenteroso di entrare nel mondo, di avere una relazione affettiva sincera nonostante la sua ricerca dei piaceri della vita, in modo anche in parte sfacciato.
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latesummersea
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in India on 11 April 2016
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fantastic...
Before reading this book, I had no idea of the kind of hate Asian immigrants were subjected to in 60s Britain. I was so enthralled by the book that I watched the 4 part BBC series which stars Naveen Andrews and Roshan Seth + David Bowie's music. The series has been terrifically adapted.
Go read the book, go watch the series on Youtube.
This is simply fantastic.
PS: Not too concerned about overtly sexual language as I see in other reviews. Sure it's there but doesn't derange the reader and throw him off balance.
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