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Karim Amir lives with his English mother and Indian father in the routine comfort of suburban London, enduring his teenage years with good humor, always on the lookout for adventure and sexual possibilities. Life gets more interesting, however, when his father becomes the Buddha of Suburbia, beguiling a circle of would-be mystics. And when the Buddha falls in love with one of his disciples, the beautiful and brazen Eva, Karim is introduced to a world of renegade theater directors, punk rock stars, fancy parties, and all the sex a young man could desire. A love story for at least two generations, a high-spirited comedy of sexual manners and social turmoil, The Buddha of Suburbia is one of the most enchanting, provocative, and original books to appear in years. Show More Show Less.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member AndrewBlackman
I grew up in Beckenham, the exact part of London suburbia in which this novel is set. To my knowledge it's the only time a novel has ever been set in Beckenham - in fact, it's probably the only time a novel has even mentioned Beckenham in passing.
So I very much enjoyed the opening chapters of the
After while, though, the novel gets bored of Beckenham and suburbia altogether, and moves into central London and theatre types and orgies and New York and S&M and more orgies. The father becomes a peripheral figure, and the book becomes something else. I felt as if Kureishi had so many things he wanted to satirise that he tried to cram all of them into a single book. Maybe he just didn't feel there was enough mileage in taking the piss out of suburbanites for 250 pages. But I was disappointed to see the territory of my childhood - Beckenham, Penge, Chislehurst and the rest of it - so swiftly abandoned.
While the later parts of the book were sometimes entertaining, I wasn't really sure where the story was going. I think there's plenty to say about suburbia and I really liked what Kureishi was saying - it felt fresh and interesting. I wish he'd stuck to suburbia and told us more about his father, more about his English mother, more about the uncle who owns a shop in Penge, more about the odd arranged marriage of Jamila and Changez. I think there was plenty of material there for a great suburban novel, perhaps even The Great Suburban Novel. But evidently Kureishi didn't, and so the action kept shifting to new places and characters and, to me, lost something in the process. It was still entertaining and worth reading, but left me a little disappointed in the end.
So I very much enjoyed the opening chapters of the
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book, narrated by the teenaged Karim and telling of his father who becomes the 'Buddha of Suburbia'. I loved the way that the father is presumed to know the secrets of 'Eastern' wisdom simply because he is Indian. It's a wonderful lampooning of a certain type of white middle-class person who fetishises the exotic.After while, though, the novel gets bored of Beckenham and suburbia altogether, and moves into central London and theatre types and orgies and New York and S&M and more orgies. The father becomes a peripheral figure, and the book becomes something else. I felt as if Kureishi had so many things he wanted to satirise that he tried to cram all of them into a single book. Maybe he just didn't feel there was enough mileage in taking the piss out of suburbanites for 250 pages. But I was disappointed to see the territory of my childhood - Beckenham, Penge, Chislehurst and the rest of it - so swiftly abandoned.
While the later parts of the book were sometimes entertaining, I wasn't really sure where the story was going. I think there's plenty to say about suburbia and I really liked what Kureishi was saying - it felt fresh and interesting. I wish he'd stuck to suburbia and told us more about his father, more about his English mother, more about the uncle who owns a shop in Penge, more about the odd arranged marriage of Jamila and Changez. I think there was plenty of material there for a great suburban novel, perhaps even The Great Suburban Novel. But evidently Kureishi didn't, and so the action kept shifting to new places and characters and, to me, lost something in the process. It was still entertaining and worth reading, but left me a little disappointed in the end.
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LibraryThing member girlunderglass
This is probably my first dab at what is generally being termed "post-colonial" writing. Karim, whose father is an Indian and his mother an Englishwoman, longs to escape the suburbs that shaped his childhood and go to London. And that he does, in the meantime attempting to rise up the social
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ladder, witnessing the rise of Punk and living London in the seventies, coping with his family's breakup, struggling with his own issues, and trying to understand the sociopolitical situation in England. But mostly, young Karim is looking for an identity, looking for a place where he can fit in all of this. Louis Menand once said about Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye) that "he never lets anything stand by itself. He always tells you what to think. He has everyone pegged... He seems (and this is why his character can be so addictive) to have something that few people ever consistently attain: an attitude toward life." In this sense, Karim is the anti-Holden: an attitude towards life is what he most wants, yet he doesn't know how to go about developing one; he never tells you what to think about any situation; he hasn't figured out who the people around him are - if they are enemies or friends; and he still has a long way to go until he figures out who he himself is. I have heard some rumors however that the beauty lies in the journey...(?) Show Less
LibraryThing member booksofcolor
I can't recall the last time any writing anywhere felt that unadorned. Most of the 'everyday city life'-leaning books I read until that one tended to turn into RENT somehow or another and it drove me up a wall, but - this one didn't. You follow Karim around, and if you can enjoy the company of a
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fictional character, then I definitely enjoyed his. Like, a lot. I want to go back and read it again because I kind of miss the guy. Show Less
LibraryThing member joba
Very well written and entertaining book about a family who lives in England in the seventies, the mother in the family is English and the father is from Indien. Their sons are struggeling to find their place between two cultures. Kureishi describes the characters and their lives and the problems
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they are dealing with, in a very warn and humorous way. Show Less
LibraryThing member BeeQuiet
Ok, clichéd statement, but I think this should be on the sylabus at every high school. It handles race, dealing with parents and relationships, sex and growing up....subjects themselves which make anyone loathing the clichéd as much as I do shudder. However it deals with them all in such a
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casual, sarcastic and effortles manner to make it a really compulsive read, and not because of the messages it puts out...but because it's really incredibly funny. Show Less
LibraryThing member liberti
I am in love with this book. I think it's shameful how Hanif Kureishi went from writing this wonderful book, to an OK book like the Black Album (his second novel) to a long string of novels that really did not even stick in memory. Maybe this is one of those cases where good is in the eye of the
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beholder. I had met Victoria, my first girlfriend, one night in the Imperial College's Falmouth-Keogh Halls of Residence at Princes' Gate Gardens. It was the first or second month into my maths B.Sc., and was coming home late from some drinking session or other. I was only slightly tipsy. There's this cute, long-haired, very english-looking girl crying over someone's shoulder near the public telephones. I eye them a little and from the body language I understand that this someone is not anyone she's crying over, but just a passer-by. Good, I tell myself. Let's DO this! So I quickly sent him on his way (he was actually relieved, he'd had enough of her tears I guess) and proceded to console the distraught girl. We have been together for three years and then split up when I moved back to Italy after the end of the B.Sc. One and a half years into our relationship, she lent me her copy of the Buddha of Suburbia, and I've been reading it once every two years on average ever since. I have a weak spot for books relating stories from the seventies. A lot of individuals have the feeling they've been born a generation too late. From what I was told and read about being a young twentysomething during the seventies, it sure looked like a fun period to be alive in. Ideals drove politics that drove economy, whilst nowadays it's imperfect market laws driving economy driving politics. People discussed books, stories, and culture. Experimented with sex and art. Fought political battles demonstrating from the streets against the Powers That Be. When I attended demonstrations, they had already become marginal events (in the economic sense). They'd gone from the workers' struggles to the university struggles down to high school level. I was fourteen. What can a shy, sexually immature, hormone-imbalanced fourteen year old possibly demonstrate about? Like many other kids, I think I went to demonstrations partially to avoid one day of school and partially to try and catch girls' attention (going to demonstrations for sexual reasons was wildly popular, at least in Italy, as related by both Umberto Eco in Foucault's Pendulum and in Ravera and Radice's Porci con le Ali). I was successful in the first feat, largely by default, whilst I was a failure in the much more important girl-scoring area. Never mind. So I would have liked to attend demonstrations which were not just copies of copies of copies. I would have liked to see and live the real thing. I read books and books and I think I can refer to seventies' idols and trends in a hip, knowing way, without ever having been there. Now I'm an adult, I tell myself that if I'd lived during the seventies, I'd have probably stayed on the side anyway, and dreamt of how nice it would have been to be living in the fifties. The Buddha of Suburbia told me a seventies' story from two novel points of view: that of geography (I'd only ever known about the seventies in Italy) and race (which was not an issue in Italy, but was very much an issue in the UK). And it did so whilst transmitting a curiosity towards all that is Indian, for all the black (well, Indian really) characters in the book are interesting and much more alive than the white ones. This book gave me a key to interpreting a lot of current English behaviour. Having been bullied by English people myself, without really being able to explain why --- since there was very little bullying in Italy --- I'd always been extremely puzzled about it. Now I started to understand the backlash of the colonies, the poverty of the basest home-grown culture confronted with the most enterprising individuals choosing the difficult task of moving from India to England, and the resulting defeat. Jobs were robbed and competition became fiercer at the margins, but the competitors from outside had already proven to be of sturdier stock. This generated hate. Besides, England being an island, they were always somewhat prone to xenophobia. Helen's father saying ``we're with Enoch'' was a sentence that always perplexed me. I recently found out about Enoch Powell and his movement. This book had a way of introducing me to things and events that English people in the nineties did not talk about --- maybe simply because Enoch was far from making the news in the 1990s --- but all knew, and sometimes referred to implicitly. I also took in all the good hints like touching girls' ears to see if they're ready for sex (actually, after much experimenting, I think this is false). I was fascinated by the sexual relationship between the cousins, and could see the difference between real London and that described in the book. West Kensington was much less run-down, for example. But Earls' court, although more upscale, was still ambivalent about its social status. And all these places were within walking distance from Imperial College! How much better can you get huh? Furthermore, although I hate books without a definite ending, I make an exception for this one. Yes, the story actually ends without strictly needing to. But there is a sense of conclusion to it. Like an age has been told, there may be strands of the past age drawing into the new one, but fundamentally the boy's gotten out of adolescence and into adulthood. Show Less
LibraryThing member Muscogulus
Entertaining novel about desperately happy, miserable, glittering, empty people in London and the suburbs in the late '70s and early '80s — from the fall of hippie culture to the rise of punk and the election of Maggie. Epiphanies just slide off these characters without leaving a trace, but it's
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fun to watch. Show Less
LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
“Someone to whom jokes are never told soon contracts enthusiasm deficiency.”
In man respects this is a coming of age novel set mainly in 1970's London against a background of the emergence of Punk Rock and political turmoil leading to the rise to ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher. The ''Buddha''
Rather the story centres on his son Karim. Karim is a sort of hybrid. He was born in England to Indian and English parents yet has never even visited India so regards himself to be English yet because of his colour is not treated as such. He is struggling to find his place in British society having feet in two separate camps. Moving from "suburbia" to London, with its promise of drugs, sex and excitement, Karim discovers a talent for acting which sets him on a path to the first of many disillusionments over love and politics.
Tucked within is a real gem of a secondary tale. This is the story of Jamila, a liberated, sexually free and politically radical British-born Muslim woman and Changez, the Indian groom chosen for her by her father. Changez is twice her age, physically repulsive and emotionally retarded. Yet Jamila and Changez eventually seem to come to an unusual but seemingly amicable arrangement.
There is no neat ending and at times reads autobiographical. Rather the novel is pointedly political and highly critical of British racism making it at times uncomfortable reading . On the whole I enjoyed the author's writing style and I often found myself reading it with a smile on my face despite not overly taking to any of the main characters. Yet how it portrays teenage life in 1970s London, confronting disturbing home truths about British attitudes towards immigrants, which still remain within a section of British society today, means that this book deserves to be more widely read.
In man respects this is a coming of age novel set mainly in 1970's London against a background of the emergence of Punk Rock and political turmoil leading to the rise to ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher. The ''Buddha''
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of the title is Haroon, father of Karim, the narrator, who works as a mundane Government bureaucrat until he deserts his British wife, Margaret, and moves in with socially climbing Eva giving out advice in the evening like some mystic guru to largely other bored Londoners. However Haroon is a fairly peripheral figure in the book. He is not even the most memorable. Rather the story centres on his son Karim. Karim is a sort of hybrid. He was born in England to Indian and English parents yet has never even visited India so regards himself to be English yet because of his colour is not treated as such. He is struggling to find his place in British society having feet in two separate camps. Moving from "suburbia" to London, with its promise of drugs, sex and excitement, Karim discovers a talent for acting which sets him on a path to the first of many disillusionments over love and politics.
Tucked within is a real gem of a secondary tale. This is the story of Jamila, a liberated, sexually free and politically radical British-born Muslim woman and Changez, the Indian groom chosen for her by her father. Changez is twice her age, physically repulsive and emotionally retarded. Yet Jamila and Changez eventually seem to come to an unusual but seemingly amicable arrangement.
There is no neat ending and at times reads autobiographical. Rather the novel is pointedly political and highly critical of British racism making it at times uncomfortable reading . On the whole I enjoyed the author's writing style and I often found myself reading it with a smile on my face despite not overly taking to any of the main characters. Yet how it portrays teenage life in 1970s London, confronting disturbing home truths about British attitudes towards immigrants, which still remain within a section of British society today, means that this book deserves to be more widely read.
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LibraryThing member jwhenderson
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi is a wide-ranging coming-of-age tale whose narrator, young Karim Amir, discovers life and love in a series of picaresque adventures. With likable characters who change and grow in response to developments in their situations, I found this novel irresistible.
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The story is set in the London suburbs of the 70's and 80's and is replete with the cultural icons, musical and otherwise, of the times. Kureishi has a deft touch with both quirky characters and erotic situations, spun with a style that is infused with his cinematic eye. I also enjoyed his recent screenplay, Venus, for the movie starring Peter O'Toole. Show Less
LibraryThing member neilchristie
Story of a dreamy teenager in suburban London in the 70s. His father is the titular buddha, his friend is a Bowie-esque would-be rock star. Memorable satire on race and growing up.
LibraryThing member zasmine
The Characters,though seem borrowed are very colorful. Kareem,Eva,Chalie,Jamila, seem like people from next door. Like Inimacy, it is a very honest book.And the comic Kureishi is a star. Good Read.
LibraryThing member zasmine
Very honestly written. Kureishi's humour twists you around and makes you leave your seat. The characters are well formed, though I dislike 'The buddha of Suburbia' the most. Would recomment this to a kureishi fan and o somebody starting with Kureishi
LibraryThing member autumnesf
Sad story of a young man with an Indian father and an English mother. Can't seem to find his place in the world or make up his mind about anything. If you want to spend your time reading about someone going nowhere fast...this is the book for you.
LibraryThing member Mifune
In the eyes of a mixed Indian/English teenager, life only means finding a way to cope and to eventually be released from inevitable boredom (mostly brought upon by uppity and sanctimonious parents). Karim finds solace in Charlie, an uber-cool kid (that has his own band!). Dad is cheating on his
I should’ve loved this book.
The creativity of Kureishi is rapidly apparent. Through the first 50 or so pages I was pleasantly pleased by anything biting or scathing of our modern drudgery, but by page 100, the consistency of no-allegiance and just a constant barrage of the narrator’s no-concern for any person or thing (perpetual boredom in the face of chaos), kind of made the story chug along at a laborious speed. Basically: I was bored, too.
Other books of endless wit can be successful because they continue in an interesting fashion about things that are interesting or present real drama or insight. Although Karim’s relationship with his dad, or “God,” the pajama-wearing, Yoga Olympian, does offer up something resembling story, I was still ambushed by Karim’s never ending apathy to all things emotional. I get it. He’s a teenager trying to undergo a transformation and find his way in life. But one would have to suspect he was more antisocial than human. And that would be absolutely fine, too, but only if the author treated the story as such.
Contrast, and a rush of delirium equals comedic relief in The Buddha of Suburbia—but little else. Without justification, or a character that is interesting in any shape or form, wit has no impact, and does not resonate anywhere we’d want it to, save the paper we’re holding in our own two hands.
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“Mum,” and is content to continue in a current state of denial. Weed is introduced to relieve oneself of everything bothersome. And then, so is an abundant amount of sarcasm.I should’ve loved this book.
The creativity of Kureishi is rapidly apparent. Through the first 50 or so pages I was pleasantly pleased by anything biting or scathing of our modern drudgery, but by page 100, the consistency of no-allegiance and just a constant barrage of the narrator’s no-concern for any person or thing (perpetual boredom in the face of chaos), kind of made the story chug along at a laborious speed. Basically: I was bored, too.
Other books of endless wit can be successful because they continue in an interesting fashion about things that are interesting or present real drama or insight. Although Karim’s relationship with his dad, or “God,” the pajama-wearing, Yoga Olympian, does offer up something resembling story, I was still ambushed by Karim’s never ending apathy to all things emotional. I get it. He’s a teenager trying to undergo a transformation and find his way in life. But one would have to suspect he was more antisocial than human. And that would be absolutely fine, too, but only if the author treated the story as such.
Contrast, and a rush of delirium equals comedic relief in The Buddha of Suburbia—but little else. Without justification, or a character that is interesting in any shape or form, wit has no impact, and does not resonate anywhere we’d want it to, save the paper we’re holding in our own two hands.
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LibraryThing member bakabaka84
I wanted really hard to like this book as I found some parts of it quite hilarious and it was full of an interesting cast of characters, such as the bumbling Changez and his odd marriage or Karim's father starting a hokey eastern mystic group. However, the constant angst that drips from this
In short, good character sketches and some truly laugh out loud moments but you have to wade through almost 300 pages of self-conceited angst that is about as much fun to read as listening to a whiny kid complaining about how bad his life is because the internet is down and he can't update his Facebook.
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narrative gets rather old after the first few chapters. I get that Kueishi was taking a jaded look at the plight of an immigrant's son, the turbulent times of the 70's, the social culture of the suburban middle class and the fascination with the orient that still had a hold over some. Yet the narrator Karim comes off as such a self-centered asshole that in the end I just really didn't care. In short, good character sketches and some truly laugh out loud moments but you have to wade through almost 300 pages of self-conceited angst that is about as much fun to read as listening to a whiny kid complaining about how bad his life is because the internet is down and he can't update his Facebook.
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LibraryThing member steadfastreader
Interesting sketches of characters -- though most of them were not as fully developed as I would like. This book would be better authored by John Irving with more character development and possibly less raw angst.
LibraryThing member mstrust
In the early 70's, South London, we meet teenager Karim, the son of an English mother and Indian father, Haroon, whom Karim nicknames both "God" and "Buddha of Suburbia" after Haroon begins leading groups of middle-class English suburbanites in his brand of living room Eastern mysticism. That the
Over the next few years the reader follows Karim as he drops out of college, lies to his parents, gets brutally truthful at times, and has various crushes and encounters with both men and women, and makes good on his pronounced desire to be an actor. There's an awful lot of graphic sex, and some hilarious scenes, especially with Changez, a physically repulsive and lazy man who Karim's uncle was tricked into bringing over from Bombay to marry his daughter and help with the family business. That everyone else loathes Changez just makes him more interesting to the contrary Karim.
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woman who is encouraging Haroon in the new career is also seducing him away from his family is obviously to Karim, who wants his family to survive but who also is entranced by both the woman and her handsome teenage son and wants to see what will unfold.Over the next few years the reader follows Karim as he drops out of college, lies to his parents, gets brutally truthful at times, and has various crushes and encounters with both men and women, and makes good on his pronounced desire to be an actor. There's an awful lot of graphic sex, and some hilarious scenes, especially with Changez, a physically repulsive and lazy man who Karim's uncle was tricked into bringing over from Bombay to marry his daughter and help with the family business. That everyone else loathes Changez just makes him more interesting to the contrary Karim.
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LibraryThing member davidroche
Just brilliant. And very funny.
LibraryThing member Helenliz
This is a coming of age tale, and is filled with the usual angst that you might expect of such a tale. Where it differs from the norm is that the main protagonist is of mixed race, Indian father, English mother, and so is an outsider on more counts than usual. Set in the 70s, this has all the
There are some great characters in here, although Karim is not one of them, he comes across as a sulky, selfish teenage - typical, I suppose, and while by the end he does appear to have learnt something, it seems quite a sudden realisation. Hi parents are a mixed bunch, with his Dad leaving his Mum, but seeming to expect her to be waiting for him. It appears to come as a nasty shock to the system when he discovers that some decision cannot be reversed. It is the supporting cast that make this. Eva, always on the up, Jamila, a strong minded, driven woman (imagine what she could do if she took on the world), Auntie Jeeta (who comes into her own), Changez, who finds himself in a very unfamiliar place.
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excess associated with the decade, the drugs sex and rock & roll that accompany the birth of punk. Rather too much sex, if truth be told.There are some great characters in here, although Karim is not one of them, he comes across as a sulky, selfish teenage - typical, I suppose, and while by the end he does appear to have learnt something, it seems quite a sudden realisation. Hi parents are a mixed bunch, with his Dad leaving his Mum, but seeming to expect her to be waiting for him. It appears to come as a nasty shock to the system when he discovers that some decision cannot be reversed. It is the supporting cast that make this. Eva, always on the up, Jamila, a strong minded, driven woman (imagine what she could do if she took on the world), Auntie Jeeta (who comes into her own), Changez, who finds himself in a very unfamiliar place.
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LibraryThing member PDCRead
Karim is a mixed race teenager, son to a Indian father who is working as a dull bureaucrat, and an English mother and living in the South London suburbs. His only aim is to escape to the bright lights of the city, not far geographically, but a place of opportunity and excitement. Having finished
In the meantime his parents have split up. His father has moved in with a lady called Eva, a social climber, who sets about turning him into an exotic guru, and darling of the chattering classes. Karim in the meantime is discovering new social classes that he had never come across in his previous life in the suburbs, there is Pkye a upper class theatre director who gives him his first chance. Terry who is Welsh, utterly working class and an avowed Trot and Eleanor with her upper middle class background and working class views who becomes his lover.
Rooted in 1970‘s suburbia, this is an bawldy, amusing and frank novel of a young lad reaching adolescence in the Seventies. It is full of the colours, sights and sounds of that era. Karim is neither English nor Indian and this makes it a pointed satire of the time, as he fits in neither camp. But this is as much about class division as it is about multiculturalism, with Karim trying to fit into the other classes and bring a bit of a square peg in a round hole. Kureishi has written a novel that I mostly I liked, it was pretty graphic at times though. Two to two and half stars.
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school he has no idea what he wants to do, and when the chance of becoming an actor presents itself, he jumps at the chance.In the meantime his parents have split up. His father has moved in with a lady called Eva, a social climber, who sets about turning him into an exotic guru, and darling of the chattering classes. Karim in the meantime is discovering new social classes that he had never come across in his previous life in the suburbs, there is Pkye a upper class theatre director who gives him his first chance. Terry who is Welsh, utterly working class and an avowed Trot and Eleanor with her upper middle class background and working class views who becomes his lover.
Rooted in 1970‘s suburbia, this is an bawldy, amusing and frank novel of a young lad reaching adolescence in the Seventies. It is full of the colours, sights and sounds of that era. Karim is neither English nor Indian and this makes it a pointed satire of the time, as he fits in neither camp. But this is as much about class division as it is about multiculturalism, with Karim trying to fit into the other classes and bring a bit of a square peg in a round hole. Kureishi has written a novel that I mostly I liked, it was pretty graphic at times though. Two to two and half stars.
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LibraryThing member john257hopper
This novel, published in 1990 but set in the 1970s, offers a view of life, love and growing up by Karim Amir, a mixed raced teenaged son of an Asian father and English mother living in Beckenham in the south east London suburbs (in the borough of Bromley, next door to my own borough of Bexley).
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Karim is a few years older than me, but I can identify with many of his (non-racial) cultural reference points as a fellow product of the 1970s suburbs. This is also of course, though, a novel about the naked racism faced by Asian and black people particularly severely at this time, when the National Front held frequent marches and in an era long before the Stephen Lawrence murder when the police frequently appeared to be, and no doubt in many cases actually were, indifferent to or even casually sceptical of the racist violence suffered by families like the Amirs: "The lives of Anwar and Jeeta and Jamila were pervaded by fear of violence. I'm sure it was something they thought about every day. Jeeta kept buckets of water around her bed in case the shop was firebombed in the night." This is not a heavy novel, though; Kureishi writes with a lightness of touch and a humour about the situations and the very rounded, realistic and believable characters. Their lives are complex - Karim's father leaves his mother and moves in with another white woman, Eva, while Karim's cousin Jamila is forced into marriage with a stranger from India after her father Anwar nearly kills himself on a hunger strike to bend her to his will. I found the first half of the novel in Beckenham very enjoyable, but when Karim grows up, moves to London and gets involved with the acting fraternity, my interest tended to wane; while still written very well, I didn't really care for any of these characters. Karim falls in and out of numerous sexual relationships with both women and men, but still feels somewhat of an outsider. After a brief sojourn with his acting circle in New York, he returns gratefully to London, where despite his problems, he feels much more at home. With its quintessential 70s setting in cultural and political terms, the novel ends with the watershed election of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government in 1979. A very good read and a superb recreation of a time and place. Show Less
LibraryThing member unsquare
An interesting story about a young man coming of age in 1970s suburban London - deals with issues of sexuality, class, and race. I enjoyed this book, but it seemed a bit fluffy somehow, even though it dealt with serious issues. Maybe I'll check out the TV miniseries version.
LibraryThing member gpower61
This book takes the reader on a trip through the London suburbs onto the metropolis and then out into the wider world. It’s also a journey through the cultural and political landscape of 1970s England as we travel from counterculture to Thatcherism. It’s a very funny novel overflowing with
Buddha is a novel of complex and subtly shifting characterisation with Kureishi repeatedly subverting stereotypes and the reader’s initial assumptions about the characters. Self-transformation is another of the central themes and most of the characters are constantly becoming someone else. The suburban Buddha of the title is Karim’s father, Haroon, a Civil Servant who, despite being a Muslim, reinvents himself as a Buddhist guru to upmarket white neo-hippies. My initial impression was of an opportunist dispensing platitudes to the credulous. By the end of the novel his refusal to accept a job beneath his natural abilities seemed more than understandable and his concern with spiritual values suddenly seemed not so trite as Margaret Thatcher, that ultimate materialist, is elected Prime Minister.
Kureishi captures the zeitgeist of ‘70s London: ambitious middle class boys becoming famous by reinventing themselves as no future proletarian punks; hippies turning into yuppies; radical plays attacking middle class society being lapped up by middle class audiences; revolutionary workers parties with lots of actors in them acting out the revolution but no actual workers; and racism as the all-pervasive mood music. The absurdities of the period are conveyed with satiric verve along with its idealistic and transformative energy.
Karim’s first-person narrative of self-discovery contains plenty of sex, drugs and profanity but also an intoxicating sense of life opening out and a world of possibilities opening up. That sense of endless possibility you have when young, greedy for experience and making your way in the world by making yourself up as you go along. This book captures the excitement, pain and joy of growing up with humour, energy and poignancy.
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serious themes: cultural and sexual identity, the suffocating conformity of the suburbs and the vertiginous liberation of the city, self-fulfilment versus obligation, materialism and spirituality, social class and ambition and the parasitic nature of art. It’s the story of teenager Karim Amir, the son of a white English mother and Indian father, growing up in Bromley and hungry for adventure. In addition to its lightness of touch it possesses an organic narrative flow and never feels as though Kureishi is working through a checklist of Important Issues.Buddha is a novel of complex and subtly shifting characterisation with Kureishi repeatedly subverting stereotypes and the reader’s initial assumptions about the characters. Self-transformation is another of the central themes and most of the characters are constantly becoming someone else. The suburban Buddha of the title is Karim’s father, Haroon, a Civil Servant who, despite being a Muslim, reinvents himself as a Buddhist guru to upmarket white neo-hippies. My initial impression was of an opportunist dispensing platitudes to the credulous. By the end of the novel his refusal to accept a job beneath his natural abilities seemed more than understandable and his concern with spiritual values suddenly seemed not so trite as Margaret Thatcher, that ultimate materialist, is elected Prime Minister.
Kureishi captures the zeitgeist of ‘70s London: ambitious middle class boys becoming famous by reinventing themselves as no future proletarian punks; hippies turning into yuppies; radical plays attacking middle class society being lapped up by middle class audiences; revolutionary workers parties with lots of actors in them acting out the revolution but no actual workers; and racism as the all-pervasive mood music. The absurdities of the period are conveyed with satiric verve along with its idealistic and transformative energy.
Karim’s first-person narrative of self-discovery contains plenty of sex, drugs and profanity but also an intoxicating sense of life opening out and a world of possibilities opening up. That sense of endless possibility you have when young, greedy for experience and making your way in the world by making yourself up as you go along. This book captures the excitement, pain and joy of growing up with humour, energy and poignancy.
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LibraryThing member Castlelass
Set in England in the 1970s, seventeen-year-old protagonist Karim was born to an English mother and Indian father. The first half of the book takes place in the suburbs and the second half in London. The novel is filled with 1970s pop culture references. It was a time of massive cultural change. It
This is a story of a search for identity. Even in multicultural London, Karim cannot escape racial stereotyping. The plot follows Karim’s struggle to fit into a society in which he sees himself as belonging (since he was born there) but is assumed to be “other” based on his appearance. Once he reaches his initial goal of living the city, he finds just as much narrow-mindedness as he encountered in the suburbs.
This book is well-written, witty, and, at times, bawdy. It is filled with irreverent humor. I was not sure I would like it at first since I do not usually have a high tolerance for graphic sexual content but ended up enjoying it immensely. I have never read anything quite like it.
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was also a time of emerging forms of self-expression, and Karim decides to become an actor. His friend, Charlie, decides to become a singer. His father, Haroon, is the titular “Buddha of Suburbia,” and Karim’s family dynamics play a key role in the story. It is told from Karim’s perspective, looking back on his youth. This is a story of a search for identity. Even in multicultural London, Karim cannot escape racial stereotyping. The plot follows Karim’s struggle to fit into a society in which he sees himself as belonging (since he was born there) but is assumed to be “other” based on his appearance. Once he reaches his initial goal of living the city, he finds just as much narrow-mindedness as he encountered in the suburbs.
This book is well-written, witty, and, at times, bawdy. It is filled with irreverent humor. I was not sure I would like it at first since I do not usually have a high tolerance for graphic sexual content but ended up enjoying it immensely. I have never read anything quite like it.
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LibraryThing member starbox
"I was looking for trouble, any kind of movement, action and sexual interest I could find"
By sally tarbox on 29 August 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
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
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.
By sally tarbox on 29 August 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
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
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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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Awards
Costa Book Awards (Shortlist — First Novel — 1990)