The Black Album

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating insights
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Buddha of Suburbia is a meal -- This is cold takeout curry
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Engaging
Review: Engaging ... unpredictably humorous and yet very profound. A painfully aware portrayal of the after-effects of colonialism on the psyches of South-Asians.

Rating:
Summary: Polycult in the House (of Lit)
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Some of the best stories I've ever read.
Review: He's got style, but not in any exagerated sense. And anyway its the material that grabs you. Very human- the material, his characters aren't so much out of the ordinary, but Kureishi wrings out of them these cooly intense, never contrived kinds of feelings. More importantly I'm 22, Eritrean, grew up in CA, and I don't think I've ever read a book that made this kind of a connection with me. Anyway I think a lot of you displaced foreign born kids out there will really be vibing with his stuff.

Rating:
Summary: A solid Kureishi
Review: I consider Kureishi as one of the best writers of recent times. The "Black Album" won't disappoint you if you are familiar with his style. It's an entertaining and easy read - even if a little morose at times (all in line with the authors style). This book has a similar story line ot "Buddha of Suburbia" which I maintain is still the author's best book.

Rating:
Summary: A solid Kureishi
Review: I consider Kureishi as one of the best writers of recent times. The "Black Album" won't disappoint you if you are familiar with his style. It's an entertaining and easy read - even if a little morose at times (all in line with the authors style). This book has a similar story line ot "Buddha of Suburbia" which I maintain is still the author's best book.

Rating:
Summary: A solid Kureishi
Review: I consider Kureishi as one of the best writers of recent times. The "Black Album" won't disappoint you if you are familiar with his style. It's an entertaining and easy read - even if a little morose at times (all in line with the authors style). This book has a similar story line ot "Buddha of Suburbia" which I maintain is still the author's best book.

Rating:
Summary: A long, tedious read.
Review: Indians, Pakistanis, English right-wing thugs, academics, swingers, religious zealeots, idealists, pushers and the hopeless meet in London, but do little to create much excitement.
A young Pakistini student moves to the big city after the death of his father and deals with himself, his sexuality, relgious beliefs, his family's bollywood-like dramas and his neighbour's idealists (mis)adventures.

To rate this book on the strength of the images it conjures up for those who lived in London during that era, might not be the fairest way to judge a book. Apart from the protagonst's unconvincing affair with his lecturer and run-ins with his brother, there is little else to grab the attention of the reader.

A slow and tedious read and had i not picked this up for only US$2, the rating would be easily one star.

Rating:
Summary: An Allegorical Book Burning
Review: It is truly ironic that a novel whose plot and characters culminate in a powerful condemnation of intellectual narrowmindedness (here portrayed by a scene of Muslim radicals burning Rushdie's Satanic Verses on a college campus) turns out to be no more than an allegorical book burning in its own right. Kureishi's characters are rigid and simplistic proto-types of good and evil that appear to draw their inspiration from vulgar popular stereotypes rather than the imagination of a literary genius. The protagonist's Muslim friends are befitting of what George Bush today calls "terrorists," while his secular mistress embodies all the excitement of intellectual and physical freedoms which, oddly enough, remain unadulterated in the writer's mind by the fact that she also happens to be a junkie and a nymphomaniac. It could even be said that the author revels in her worldly vices which emerge as virtues in comparison with the excesses of religious fervor. The final scene in which the protagonist's mistress and Muslim friend physically struggle for him, each pulling him by one arm in the opposite direction is a ludicrous and exaggerated portrayal of his inner struggle to compromise his faith and worldly passions. This and other "key" scenes of the book (not to mention the dialogue) are so lacking in subtlety that they would do well in an elementary school reader where the audience cannot see beyond the obvious. As is to be expected of a novel thoroughly colored by an (ironically) anti-intellectual aversion to religion, worldly passions hold sway and all good is ultimately on their side - including freedom of thought. Unfortunately, Kureishi leaves his readers very little room to think in a story-line that categorically and unjustly rejects compromise between faith and intellectual illumination, forcing one to take sides in what ultimately ends up being a thoroughly anti-intellectual and propagandistic exercise in writing. Though I treasure books that range from authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Marquis de Sade, this was the first that I had to relegate to the bin. It did not deserve a place in what I consider to be an open-minded and intelectually stimulating literary collection.