There's quite a bit of activity in Buddha of Suburbia. A bureaucrat becomes a suburban guru who marries a follower with a son who's a punk rocker named Charlie Hero. Consequently, the guru's son is propelled from his bland life into a series of erotic experiences in London. All the while, Hanif Kureishi keeps the tone lively with wry wit. On the description of suburban life: "We were proud of never learning anything except the names of footballers, the personnel of rock groups and the lyrics to 'I Am the Walrus.'" He also bends cultures, classes and genders while blasting the racism of British life in this 1990 Whitbread Prize winner.


From Publishers Weekly
Karim Amir, bored with his suburban lifestyle in England, is propelled into the fast lane and introduced to disparate cultures, classes and genders thanks to a disorienting chain of events sparked by his father, a self-proclaimed guru. PW called this "delectable. . . . Resembling a modern-day Tom Jones , this is an astonishing book, full of intelligence and elan." Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Kureishi is the author of two controversial screenplays, My Beautiful Launderette (1985) and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987). This novel, written in a similar vein, deals with many of the same themes: father-son relations, punk rock, bisexuality, and class and racial prejudices in England. The story is told through the eyes of Karim Amir, "an Englishman born and bred, almost." Karim is a Holden Caulfield-like character who observes and analyzes the shortcomings of his society as he moves out of London's suburbs into the larger world. The book provides a witty, satiric view of English popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s, but it is fairly thin on plot and character development. This may be one instance where the movie version will actually be better than the book.- William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNYCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Publishers Weekly
Resembling a modern-day Tom Jones, this is an astonishing book, full of intelligence and elan.


From AudioFile
The author of the acclaimed film MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE puts his first novel in the mouth of an East Indian teen living in the London suburbs. The bisexual Karim yearns for independence and the big city. His father, a philandering self-styled Buddhist guru, and his affairs with male and female schoolmates complicate his dreary young life. The theater beckons. Does this sound hilarious? Well, it is. It's also earthy, clever, and dripping with irony. You wouldn't guess it from the plot outline, nor from Christopher Simpson's abysmal narration. Simpson shines in passages of dialogue but otherwise reads in an unendurable near monotone. Y.R. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

ANNOTATION

A love story for at least two generstions, 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. "A wickedly funny novel that's at once a traditional comedy of manners and a scathing satire on race relations in Britain."--The New York Times.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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 Suberbia is one of the most enchanting, provocative, and original books to appear in years.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Midway through the first page of this delectable first novel by screenwriter Kureishi ( My Beautiful Laundrette ; Sammy and Rosie Get Laid ), the 17-year-old narrator--``My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost''--observes that the plodding existence he has shared with his Indian father and English mother is about to undergo a disorienting change. The catalyst is the father, a civil servant and self-proclaimed guru whose falling in love with one of his followers precipitates events that propel his restless son out of the suburbs and into the fast lane. Karim relates these developments in a series of erotically charged episodes no less charming for their undercurrent of desperation. Though continually yanked about among disparate cultures, classes, colors, even genders--``I felt it would be heartbreaking to have to choose one or the other, like having to decide between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones''--Karim never loses his capacity for affectionate mockery. Resembling a modern-day Tom Jones , this is an astonishing book, full of intelligence and elan. 25,000 first printing; first serial to Mother Jones; QPB alternate;author tour. (May)

Library Journal

Kureishi is the author of two controversial screenplays, My Beautiful Launderette (1985) and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987). This novel, written in a similar vein, deals with many of the same themes: father-son relations, punk rock, bisexuality, and class and racial prejudices in England. The story is told through the eyes of Karim Amir, ``an Englishman born and bred, almost.'' Karim is a Holden Caulfield-like character who observes and analyzes the shortcomings of his society as he moves out of London's suburbs into the larger world. The book provides a witty, satiric view of English popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s, but it is fairly thin on plot and character development. This may be one instance where the movie version will actually be better than the book.-- William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY

AudioFile