Hanif, this book, and then all of your work -- I’m a Kureishi-completist ;-) -- has meant so much to me. As a mixed East-Indian-American I was shocked to discover direct identification with your early narrative avatars but then, as your work expanded, I delighted in all your creations, regardless of identity-boxes. In no small measure you have showed me the way forward.
Also, I had the great good fortune of meeting you once after a screening of BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA at the Public Theatre in NYC. I was terribly shy and basically speechless but you offered me kind words and a signature on my copy of the screenplay for SAMMY AND ROSIE. You remain my David Bowie ;-) and I pray daily to the secular gods for your happiness and recovery.
Keep scribbling. Your mind is essential to so many.
meant to press like, pressed this and it won't go back! Now I'm here though, what a compliment to Hanif - hope he reads it and surely the piece had readers like you in mind.
I hope this piece was written very recently Hanif because from the tone it sounds as if you are in a more positive frame of mind. It sounds buoyant, I hope I'm right and that this is not just my hopeful assumption. Buddha is a marvelous funny and profound creation and Karim is a beautiful and complex character, much I suspect, like yourself. Xx Jane
Attending a number of your book launches and talks over the years when I lived in London, I always told you how Buddha of Suburbia remains the most significant book for my late teens and onwards. I wrote my dissertation on BoS (identity and music were themes if I remember correctly) and gave you a copy once! I still remain an avid follower of your writing and found you, your theatre, your films and your journalism through this incredible book. I do hope today is a better day and being back in London is working it’s magic. Much love, Kate x
there is so much I could say about this novel, but I don't know how to say it adequately. So I'll just say, as a young British Indian guy reading it a few years after it was published, as much as a novel can change your worldview and life, this did.
I took the book with me to the U.S when my sister got married in Las Vegas soon after its publication and enjoyed it and though your early life was very different from mine I could recognise the characters and anyway I was up for reading anything about being a POC and of Asian origin growing up in the 60's/70's in the U.K. when there were very few book available that had been written from that perspective.
Hanif, I don't know if you have the time or inclination to read replies to your posts, because of what you're going through, but I wanted to share the following - about reading Buddha of Suburbia and then watching the TV adaption.
I finished my studies at polytechnic in 1990, then spent the rest of that year trying and failing to get a job. I had a sort of routine in the summer. The morning was spent applying for jobs at companies that were going bust in the recession of the early 90s. If the weather was good, in the afternoon I'd sneak out into the little garden behind my parents' council house, lie on an old blanket on our tiny lawn that overlooked a field, and read library books.
I think the field was used by travellers to keep horses during the summer months. The horses would sometimes rest their big heads on our hedge and watch me as I read, hoping I'd stop and feed them an apple or oatcake (a local delicacy in my part of the world - once described by broadcaster Stuart Maconie as a bit like a "savoury flannel").
Budda of Suburbia was one of my favourite reads that idle and slightly depressing summer. I was a provincial kid - my knowledge of diversity was limited to the people who ran the town takeaways, and it didn't really expand that much when I went to study at a provincial polytechnic. But I loved the characters of 'Budda' - I felt like a kid who didn't really fit in, so in my own weird way, I felt I could relate to Karim.
The TV adaption was then a must watch for me, and I had a sort of routine with that too. Still living at home, I watched videotaped episodes with my first serious girlfriend on Saturday afternoons, when my dad was out. We'd have the place to ourselves and she'd smoke weed (I was always more of a boring 'pint and 20 Embassy' sort of guy), while we watched your fantastic story, now adapted for the small screen.
I loved the adaption, and loved it again when it was recently repeated on BBC4, partly because it brought back memories of idle summers and past loves.
Reading this post from you has made me want to read your book again, so I'm going to buy a new copy of 'Budda', and I know I'll love reading it a second time.
Buddha was my one of my first forays into ‘adult’ literature and I’ve been a lifelong reader. It caused quite the stir at my secondary school when I opted to write my (Scottish) Higher paper on it - instead of the general standards of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ etc. Your books have accompanied me through every transitional stage of my life so far, and I’m now encouraged that my teenage daughter is now toying with reading the collection, displayed proudly in our lounge.
You have never been a writer whose career I have consciously followed. What has happened instead is that something you have worked on will cross my path. I will absorb it and enjoy it – I can't recall any of your output that I haven't enjoyed. Afterwards, the Kureishi comet will continue on its elliptical journey across the void of space until the next time we meet. It is a very organic way of interacting with an artist. I didn't plan it like that. It is just the way the cards fell.
My first contact with 'The Buddha of Suburbia' was through the four-part drama and the accompanying David Bowie album. There was nothing else like it on TV, or at least nothing that I was aware of. I think it was, culturally, a little ahead of its time.
Bowie had enjoyed a commercially successful 1980s, at the price of having to curb some of his creative instincts. Now the pendulum was beginning to swing back in the opposite direction, as he seemed to be attempting to re-engage with his muse. 'The Buddha of Suburbia' was followed by the demented 'Outside', though even on the extremes of that latter record it feels like he is chasing the pack and aping the style of others. 'Buddha' is probably the most artistically pure of his 90s output. If he is imitating anyone on that album, then it is his younger self.
I didn't read the novel until the early 2000s. I had gone to spend a few weeks with a friend. I arrived to find him eye-deep in work and extremely stressed. He didn't really have any time for me. I didn't feel like it would be acceptable for me to venture out and do the things that we would have probably done together under more favourable circumstances. I was also a little concerned about what might happen if I went home. In the end I spent a few weeks sitting around his place, reading his books. I should go out and buy my own copy of Buddha and re-read it.
Are first novels always a letter to one's parents? Mine was motivated by boredom and a lack of money to address this ennui via the usual tried and tested means. My mother later outlined to me, in great depth, who she thought each of the characters were based on. I didn't have the heart to tell her, 'no, they are just characters' and that the book was just an idea that was probably taken too far.
Buddha of suburbia is probably along with My son the Fanatic my favourites of yours.
My son, who has a Punjabi father found them hilarious, inspiring and very relevant to his own experience, especially when he was in his late teens, when he was the only other kid in a private Surrey school with a Muslim- background Dad. Thank you for that. Now in his 30s he wears his so-called mixed race identity with pride and playfulness.
Another point: As a German emigre in the UK I have been asked a zillion times where I come from, and I am categorised as White Other. In 30 years on and off in the UK, I never felt that I owned anything nor belonged. Dora B.
I want to go watch the film of it again right now! I love the novel and the adaptation... i'm always recommending it to others. It's a star, as are you, dear Hanif.
I certainly thank you for it! And I wonder what you think of the BBC adaptation and of adaptations of your work in general, especially when you are not part of the process. Intimacy, for example (that is I don’t think you were part of that but I’m not sure). If you ever feel like telling us… And thank you, again.
I grew up with Roger Michell. ‘Buddha...’ was the moment I first saw my friend hit his stride as a director. Your writing was the wind beneath his wings.
Hanif, this book, and then all of your work -- I’m a Kureishi-completist ;-) -- has meant so much to me. As a mixed East-Indian-American I was shocked to discover direct identification with your early narrative avatars but then, as your work expanded, I delighted in all your creations, regardless of identity-boxes. In no small measure you have showed me the way forward.
Also, I had the great good fortune of meeting you once after a screening of BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA at the Public Theatre in NYC. I was terribly shy and basically speechless but you offered me kind words and a signature on my copy of the screenplay for SAMMY AND ROSIE. You remain my David Bowie ;-) and I pray daily to the secular gods for your happiness and recovery.
Keep scribbling. Your mind is essential to so many.
meant to press like, pressed this and it won't go back! Now I'm here though, what a compliment to Hanif - hope he reads it and surely the piece had readers like you in mind.
I hope this piece was written very recently Hanif because from the tone it sounds as if you are in a more positive frame of mind. It sounds buoyant, I hope I'm right and that this is not just my hopeful assumption. Buddha is a marvelous funny and profound creation and Karim is a beautiful and complex character, much I suspect, like yourself. Xx Jane
Attending a number of your book launches and talks over the years when I lived in London, I always told you how Buddha of Suburbia remains the most significant book for my late teens and onwards. I wrote my dissertation on BoS (identity and music were themes if I remember correctly) and gave you a copy once! I still remain an avid follower of your writing and found you, your theatre, your films and your journalism through this incredible book. I do hope today is a better day and being back in London is working it’s magic. Much love, Kate x
Fearless, funny fierce Kureishi, and a book that changed our lives. Where have all the sharp and bold writers gone? You inspire us daily.
there is so much I could say about this novel, but I don't know how to say it adequately. So I'll just say, as a young British Indian guy reading it a few years after it was published, as much as a novel can change your worldview and life, this did.
I took the book with me to the U.S when my sister got married in Las Vegas soon after its publication and enjoyed it and though your early life was very different from mine I could recognise the characters and anyway I was up for reading anything about being a POC and of Asian origin growing up in the 60's/70's in the U.K. when there were very few book available that had been written from that perspective.
Fascinating insights.
No one was really daring to touch the changing nature of the world we lived in....and with wit, a sharp eye,, and humour. Great stuff.
Hanif, I don't know if you have the time or inclination to read replies to your posts, because of what you're going through, but I wanted to share the following - about reading Buddha of Suburbia and then watching the TV adaption.
I finished my studies at polytechnic in 1990, then spent the rest of that year trying and failing to get a job. I had a sort of routine in the summer. The morning was spent applying for jobs at companies that were going bust in the recession of the early 90s. If the weather was good, in the afternoon I'd sneak out into the little garden behind my parents' council house, lie on an old blanket on our tiny lawn that overlooked a field, and read library books.
I think the field was used by travellers to keep horses during the summer months. The horses would sometimes rest their big heads on our hedge and watch me as I read, hoping I'd stop and feed them an apple or oatcake (a local delicacy in my part of the world - once described by broadcaster Stuart Maconie as a bit like a "savoury flannel").
Budda of Suburbia was one of my favourite reads that idle and slightly depressing summer. I was a provincial kid - my knowledge of diversity was limited to the people who ran the town takeaways, and it didn't really expand that much when I went to study at a provincial polytechnic. But I loved the characters of 'Budda' - I felt like a kid who didn't really fit in, so in my own weird way, I felt I could relate to Karim.
The TV adaption was then a must watch for me, and I had a sort of routine with that too. Still living at home, I watched videotaped episodes with my first serious girlfriend on Saturday afternoons, when my dad was out. We'd have the place to ourselves and she'd smoke weed (I was always more of a boring 'pint and 20 Embassy' sort of guy), while we watched your fantastic story, now adapted for the small screen.
I loved the adaption, and loved it again when it was recently repeated on BBC4, partly because it brought back memories of idle summers and past loves.
Reading this post from you has made me want to read your book again, so I'm going to buy a new copy of 'Budda', and I know I'll love reading it a second time.
Please keep writing, Hanif.
All the best,
Den
Buddha was my one of my first forays into ‘adult’ literature and I’ve been a lifelong reader. It caused quite the stir at my secondary school when I opted to write my (Scottish) Higher paper on it - instead of the general standards of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ etc. Your books have accompanied me through every transitional stage of my life so far, and I’m now encouraged that my teenage daughter is now toying with reading the collection, displayed proudly in our lounge.
Thank you for everything.
You have never been a writer whose career I have consciously followed. What has happened instead is that something you have worked on will cross my path. I will absorb it and enjoy it – I can't recall any of your output that I haven't enjoyed. Afterwards, the Kureishi comet will continue on its elliptical journey across the void of space until the next time we meet. It is a very organic way of interacting with an artist. I didn't plan it like that. It is just the way the cards fell.
My first contact with 'The Buddha of Suburbia' was through the four-part drama and the accompanying David Bowie album. There was nothing else like it on TV, or at least nothing that I was aware of. I think it was, culturally, a little ahead of its time.
Bowie had enjoyed a commercially successful 1980s, at the price of having to curb some of his creative instincts. Now the pendulum was beginning to swing back in the opposite direction, as he seemed to be attempting to re-engage with his muse. 'The Buddha of Suburbia' was followed by the demented 'Outside', though even on the extremes of that latter record it feels like he is chasing the pack and aping the style of others. 'Buddha' is probably the most artistically pure of his 90s output. If he is imitating anyone on that album, then it is his younger self.
I didn't read the novel until the early 2000s. I had gone to spend a few weeks with a friend. I arrived to find him eye-deep in work and extremely stressed. He didn't really have any time for me. I didn't feel like it would be acceptable for me to venture out and do the things that we would have probably done together under more favourable circumstances. I was also a little concerned about what might happen if I went home. In the end I spent a few weeks sitting around his place, reading his books. I should go out and buy my own copy of Buddha and re-read it.
Are first novels always a letter to one's parents? Mine was motivated by boredom and a lack of money to address this ennui via the usual tried and tested means. My mother later outlined to me, in great depth, who she thought each of the characters were based on. I didn't have the heart to tell her, 'no, they are just characters' and that the book was just an idea that was probably taken too far.
Dear Hanif
I hope your recovery is progressing.
Buddha of suburbia is probably along with My son the Fanatic my favourites of yours.
My son, who has a Punjabi father found them hilarious, inspiring and very relevant to his own experience, especially when he was in his late teens, when he was the only other kid in a private Surrey school with a Muslim- background Dad. Thank you for that. Now in his 30s he wears his so-called mixed race identity with pride and playfulness.
Another point: As a German emigre in the UK I have been asked a zillion times where I come from, and I am categorised as White Other. In 30 years on and off in the UK, I never felt that I owned anything nor belonged. Dora B.
I want to go watch the film of it again right now! I love the novel and the adaptation... i'm always recommending it to others. It's a star, as are you, dear Hanif.
I certainly thank you for it! And I wonder what you think of the BBC adaptation and of adaptations of your work in general, especially when you are not part of the process. Intimacy, for example (that is I don’t think you were part of that but I’m not sure). If you ever feel like telling us… And thank you, again.
Beautiful.
I grew up with Roger Michell. ‘Buddha...’ was the moment I first saw my friend hit his stride as a director. Your writing was the wind beneath his wings.
inspirational for many of us