The Buddha of Suburbia

Hanif Kureishi was born in 1954, in Kent. His mother was English and his father had come from Pakistan. H. Kureishi studied philosophy at King's College, London. After graduating, he started writing plays and screenplays. His 1984 screenplay for the film My Beautiful Laundrette was nominated for an Oscar. The film, directed by Stephen Frears, stars Daniel Day Lewis. H. Kureishi also wrote the screenplays of Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987) and London Kills Me (1991).

The Buddha of Suburbia, published in 1990 won the Whitbread Award for a first novel. It was adapted as a television series. His other novels include The Black Album (1995), which deals with Islamic fundamentalism, Gabriel's Gift (2001), The Body (2003), Something to Tell You (2008) and The Last Word (2014). A collection of his stories and essays was published in 2015.

In an interview in 1990 Kureishi said that he was "one of a number of writers who are describing the immigrant experience and the contemporary result of it." The Economist calls him "a post-colonial Philip Roth¹", and the journalist adds that Kureishi "is credited with bringing the stories of British Asians and non-whites into the mainstream."

In a 2014 Guardian interview, he explained : "I was influenced by PG Wodehouse and Philip Roth. […]I like to think I'm a comic writer, in the English comic tradition of Waugh and Amis and Angus Wilson." So he acknowledges the influence of American and British writers but at the same time, he says : "If Britain is a cultural force in Europe – which I think it is – then that's because of multiculturalism and diversity". The Guardian critic explains that "Within British culture, he was an icon of multiculturalism". He has also been categorised as a "Commonwealth writer". F. D'Souza, in an essay on The Buddha of Suburbia, writes that "Hanif Kureishi's hyphenated identity with his Indian father and English mother, has perhaps given him an outsider-insider's view on English society." Indeed in the very first line of this novel, the narrator declares :"I am an Englishman born and bred, almost". This sentence with the addition of the adverb "almost" added at the end, as an afterthought, sums up his narrator's perspective as an "outsider-insider", which may very well reflect the writer's own experience. 

¹ Philip Roth (1933-2018) is an American novelist.

VOCABULARY
a play : pièce de théâtre
screenplay : scénario
hyphenated : double (a hyphen = un trait d'union)
indeed : en effet
born and bred : de souche
almost : presque
afterthought : après-coup

The main character and narrator of The Buddha of Suburbia is Karim Amir who describes himself as "a funny kind of Englishman, […] having emerged from two old histories" (chapter 1). The two histories refer to his parents : his father is Indian and his mother is English. At the beginning of the novel, which takes place in the 1970s, Karim is 17, living in the London suburbs with his parents, "easily bored […], ready for anything" (chapter 1). This last phrase "ready for anything" could very well sum up the rest of this novel, which has been described as a "bildungsroman", a picaresque novel and as a critic in The New York Times said "a wickedly funny novel". 

Karim embarks on a series of adventures which take him out of the suburbs (the first part of the novel) to the city (the second part of the novel). Karim feels he does not belong in the suburbs, where everyone is conventional, materialistic and at times racist and violent. When his father, whom he describes as "a renegade Muslim masquerading as a Buddhist" (chapter 1), becomes the "Buddha of Suburbia", teaching yoga and Eastern philosophy, Karim's life changes. 

Karim finds out his father has been unfaithful to his mother. He himself falls in love with both young women and young men, experiments with drugs and behaves as one of the other characters calls "a naughty boy" (chapter 1). Both father and son eventually leave the narrow-minded suburbs for London. 

Karim in his own words "fantasized about London and what I'd do there when the city belonged to me" (chapter 8). London lives up to his expectation. He discovers the 70s cultural scene and gets a small part in a stage version of The Jungle Book. The director reminds him that he "has been cast for authenticity", in other words because he looks Indian. Although he feels like "a human zoo"(chapter 10), Karim sees this is an opportunity to break through. From then on he is convinced that "It would lead upwards" (chapter 10), and it does. He gets noticed by a theatre producer who offers him another part. Later on, he goes to New York where his play is a success but he misses London so he goes back to England. He ends up getting a part in a soap opera, which he sums up as "top pay, top job" (chapter 18). At the end of the novel, Karim reflects that London has allowed him to discover who he truly is and to find his rightful place : "I could think back about the past and what I'd been through as I'd struggled to locate myself and learn where the heart is" (chapter 18).

QUOTATIONS ABOUT The Buddha of Suburbia

"The Buddha of Suburbia is a novel which flirts, dangerously at times, with autobiography" (The Sunday Times)

"Kureishi's blunt treatment of race, politics and sexuality is sure to grab the reader's attention as he confronts uncomfortable home truths about British attitudes towards foreigners." (The Guardian)

"This novel belongs to a familiar literary trend : the rebellious, angry, confused young man who recounts his self-conscious personal odyssey […]. It is skin colour and race which focus what is otherwise a very standard story about youthful rebellion, […] racism as an external theme is internalised." (M. Jones)

"One of the best comic novels of growing up, and one of the sharpest satires on race relations in this country…" (Independent on Sunday)

"This is a naughty, bubbly book. It says things frankly and with delight. Nothing is agonising to Karim, really – not race, class or sex – it’s all interesting, it’s all worth talking about, without shame, and without making heavy weather of it either" (Zadie Smith¹)

''The Buddha of Suburbia was a touching, raunchy comedy of manners…" (The New York Times)

¹ Zadie Smith is a contemporary British writer.

VOCABULARY

bildungsroman : roman d'apprentissage
wicked : méchant, diabolique
to be bored : s'ennuyer
to sum up : résumer
to belong in : être à sa place
to find out : apprendre, découvrir
unfaithful : infidèle
naughty : coquin, vilain
narrow-minded : étroit d'esprit
to fantasize : fantasmer
to live up to one's expectations : répondre à ses attentes
a part : un rôle
to be cast : avoir le rôle
upwards : vers le haut
to break through : percer
to notice : remarquer
rightful : légitime
to be through : traverser
to struggle : lutter
to locate myself : me trouver
blunt : sans détours, brutal
to grab : captiver
home truths : quatre vérités
sharp : acéré
bubbly : pétillant, léger
agonising : pénible, insupportable
to be worth : valoir la peine
to make heavy weather : en faire toute une montagne
raunchy : grivois