From Publishers Weekly
At once intriguing and preposterous, Kureishi's slender new novel starts off promisingly. Adam, the narrator, a famous writer in his 60s, is approached at a party by an attractive and mysterious young man named Ralph. Ralph claims to be an old man whose brain has been transplanted into a new, younger body. The bodies come from dead young people, whose deaths seem eerily convenient for those who want to become "Newbodies." At first Adam does not believe the story. But Ralph's entreaties are so convincing-and appealing-that Adam agrees to temporarily transplant his brain into the body of a man of 25. After all, "Who hasn't asked: Why can't I be someone else? Who, really, wouldn't want to live again, given the chance?" The science behind the idea is vague and silly, but Kureishi probably never meant it to be convincing. Instead, he sends Adam on various soul-searching journeys in his new body, which was "stocky and as classically handsome as any sculpture in the British Museum." Adam waxes on his life in a new body, has loads of hot sex and eventually settles at a spiritual retreat on a Greek island. But soon he yearns to return to his old body-warts and all-and to his wife and former life in London. But menacing forces conspire against him, and he soon realizes the grave consequences of his decision. The novel is too short and sketchy to fully explore the ramifications of its premise. Kureishi, through Adam, has many things to say about life in an alien body, but these musings never really cohere. And the creepiness of the setup, which could have made for spine-tingling reading, never amounts to much. Still, the writing, as in Kureishi's other novels (Intimacy; The Buddha of Suburbia), is crisp and precise, and the book should satisfy his fans until something more substantial comes along. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Kureishi's new novel employs the shopworn device of reporting what happens when part of one person is transplanted into another. In this case, an old man's brain is displaced into a young man's "facility," an extreme measure even in a time when, thanks to aging baby boomers, youth is mourned as a fleeting resource, and the effort to maintain it is pursued with increasing fervor. Sixtysomething London playwright Adam is none too stable mentally, and half-deaf, half-blind, and half-lame, too. He carefully elects the illicit surgical transplant, so his is no sudden, unwanted, Kafka-esque awakening as an insect or transformation into a mammoth breast a la Philip Roth's Breast (1972). Yet many may recall those and other tales of transformation as they follow Adam's journey into newfound hedonism, during which he finds that possessing something of value means one will be pursued by have-nots. Kureishi's smoothly written, fast-moving, thought-provoking work concludes with a man on the run, imprisoned by his "self" and now certainly knowing that time waits for no one. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
"After a bit you realize there's only one invaluable commodity. Not gold or love, but time." How far are we willing to go to stay young? Hanif Kureishi -- acclaimed author of The Buddha of Suburbia and Intimacy -- explores the possibilities in this provocative story of an older man whose brain is surgically placed in a younger man's body by a network of underground doctors. Adam is offered the chance to trade in his sagging flesh for a much younger and more pleasing model. He tells his wife and son that he is going on an extended vacation. He immediately embarks on an odyssey of hedonism, but soon finds himself regretting what he left behind and feeling guilt over the responsibilities he has ignored. Sinister forces pursue him, wanting possession of "his" body, and he soon finds himself with nowhere to turn. "A fluent, socially observant writer whose sentences move with intelligence and wit" (The New York Times Book Review), Kureishi presents us with both a fantastically vivid tale and hard-hitting questions about our own relationships with our minds and bodies -- and with time that is running out.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"How far are we willing to go to stay young? Hanif Kureishi - acclaimed author of The Buddha of Suburbia and Intimacy - explores the possibilities in this provocative story of an older man whose brain is surgically placed in a younger man's body by a network of underground doctors." Adam is offered the chance to trade in his sagging flesh for a much younger and more pleasing model. He tells his wife and son that he is going on an extended vacation. He immediately embarks on an odyssey of hedonism, but soon finds himself regretting what he left behind and feeling guilt over the responsibilities he has ignored. Sinister forces pursue him, wanting possession of "his" body, and he soon finds himself with nowhere to turn.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

At once intriguing and preposterous, Kureishi's slender new novel starts off promisingly. Adam, the narrator, a famous writer in his 60s, is approached at a party by an attractive and mysterious young man named Ralph. Ralph claims to be an old man whose brain has been transplanted into a new, younger body. The bodies come from dead young people, whose deaths seem eerily convenient for those who want to become "Newbodies." At first Adam does not believe the story. But Ralph's entreaties are so convincing-and appealing-that Adam agrees to temporarily transplant his brain into the body of a man of 25. After all, "Who hasn't asked: Why can't I be someone else? Who, really, wouldn't want to live again, given the chance?" The science behind the idea is vague and silly, but Kureishi probably never meant it to be convincing. Instead, he sends Adam on various soul-searching journeys in his new body, which was "stocky and as classically handsome as any sculpture in the British Museum." Adam waxes on his life in a new body, has loads of hot sex and eventually settles at a spiritual retreat on a Greek island. But soon he yearns to return to his old body-warts and all-and to his wife and former life in London. But menacing forces conspire against him, and he soon realizes the grave consequences of his decision. The novel is too short and sketchy to fully explore the ramifications of its premise. Kureishi, through Adam, has many things to say about life in an alien body, but these musings never really cohere. And the creepiness of the setup, which could have made for spine-tingling reading, never amounts to much. Still, the writing, as in Kureishi's other novels (Intimacy; The Buddha of Suburbia), is crisp and precise, and the book should satisfy his fans until something more substantial comes along. (Feb. 24) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Part Faust, part Twilight Zone, this novel seems like a new direction for the English author of The Buddha of Suburbia and the screenplay My Beautiful Laundrette. An aging writer in London hears of a new surgical procedure that implants one's brain, soul, and memory inside a different and younger body. Compelled by the promise of a new life, he chooses one that looks like that of a former male model. He quickly finds that both women and men are passionately attracted to the new Leo Raphael Adams, who soon leaves London, travels through Europe in high style, and ends up on a remote Greek isle. His troubles begin there when he runs into a ruthless tycoon who also turns out to be a "newbody" and who decides that Leo should donate his body, immediately, to the rich man's sick brother. Barely escaping with his life, Leo returns to London to try and resume his old identity before his new one is terminated prematurely, but there's nowhere to turn. The aging and melancholic writer's philosophical takes on life as a libertine give substance to this brief, swiftly paced story of life in the fast lane veering dangerously out of control. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-Jim Coan, SUNY at Oneonta Lib. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews