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The Buddha of Suburbia [Paperback]

Hanif Kureishi (Author)

3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 8 Jan 2009

Karim lives with his Mum and Dad in a suburb of south London and dreams of making his escape to the bright lights of the big city. But his father is no ordinary Dad, he is 'the buddha of suburbia', a strange and compelling figure whose powers of meditation hold a circle of would-be mystics spellbound with the fascinations of the East.

Among his disciples is the glamorous and ambitious Eva, and when 'the buddha of suburbia' runs off with her to a crumbling flat in Barons Court, Karim's life becomes changed in ways that even he had never dreamed of . . .

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Product details

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Faber and Faber (8 Jan 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0571245870
ISBN-13: 978-0571245871
Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 19.7 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 34,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Book Description

The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi's first novel, is the bizarre, often hilarious, and totally original picture of the life of a young Pakistani man growing up in 1970s Britain.

About the Author

Hanif Kureishi is the author of novels (including The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy), story collections (Love in a Blue Time, Midnight All Day, The Body), plays (including Outskirts, Borderline and Sleep With Me), and screenplays (including My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus). Among his other publications are the collection of essays Dreaming and Scheming, The Word and the Bomb and the memoir My Ear at his Heart.

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Customer Reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars

3.7 out of 5 stars

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Celibacy in the suburbs....? I doubt it 17 Sep 2009

By Pamela Learmonth

Format:Paperback

Hailing from the borough of Bromley myself (albeit growing up there in a different decade), this book has been on my "I really should read that" list for years. Having finally got round to it (the reading part took only a matter of days, you'll see why below) I thought I may as well do the book the courtesy of setting out my humble thoughts on it.

The pace of the book is quick. It's an uptempo tale taking you from the south London suburbs, to well-heeled Kensington, glamorous New York and back again before you know it. Characters that are bonkers. Characters you'd love to have a beer with. Characters you have an ache in your chest for out of pure sympathy. Characters you would literally do an about turn in the street to avoid.

I don't think it's the place of these reviews to spell out the plot, and other people have taken the trouble in other reviews in any case. But Kureishi captures that longing for meaning and excitement that all (normal) teenagers and people in their early 20s experience, to a tee. People of that age are rightly selfish and need to take things for granted in order to find out what really matters to them.

This book captures that spirit of freedom in life. You never know where you might end up, who with and why. You also never know when you might surprise yourself and just go after something completely different in life to everything you had worked for and previously valued. It's a breath of fresh air and Kureishi's blunt and often brutal prose exploits that essence to the max. He writes it as it is and I like that.

For me the best character in the book is the surburb itself.... Read more ›

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars zeitgeist of late 70s society, music and parental divorce. 22 Feb 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

A humerous, intellectual and very observed insight into the growing up of a British Indian, his sexuality, viewpoints, career and family life. Based in the late 70s it encompasses wonderfully all the pains and joys of school to adulthood from the perspective of the voyeur, or should that be involved observer?

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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A search for identity crossing the boundaries of hybridity. 10 Jan 2002

By lilmerricks@hotmail.com

Format:Paperback

Hanif Kureshi introduces us to the world of Karim, who, as a Seventeen year old boy with an English mother and an eccentric Indian father, is searching for his own identity. Karim is more of an English youth than the exotic Indian boy as everyone percieves him to be. Indeed, his English step-brother is more exotic than him. Karim experiments with new ideas in his search to find himself, he is not pinned down to any place or group of people. Instead, he is able to mix with anyone, and move around in any social circle in 1970s London. It is his hybridity that allows him to do this. He is neither one thing or another.
A very amusing and thought provoking novel. It opens the world up, and at the same time it makes it seem more familiar to us. We learn a great deal about ourselves through it.

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Rather slow moving and lacking in a good thread throughout 26 Feb 2009

By John M VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a book that received much acclaim at the time, although frankly speaking I struggled through it. The book charts a teenager with an Indian father and English mother through the 1970s, detailing the changes in society, fashions and music, against a backdrop of family breakups and relationships. Although it has a few good characters and funny moments, they were for me rather few and far between. The music and trend descriptions seemed rather self-conscious throughout. The characters were general unappealling and somewhat caricatured. I had very little interest in the main character, Karim, and his bisexual adventures and stage career. The book lacked a strong storyline, and became a mish-mash of assorted characters and scenes without a strong thread to bind it together. The book ended rather abruptly, although I'm not complaining about that! Perhaps the author ran out of writing paper? Rather a 'miss' for me, I'm afraid.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious! 28 Oct 2012

By Pepper

Format:Paperback

This novel wasn't what I expected...in a good way! The book had me laughing out loud at several parts, and is brilliantly insightful. The novels protagonist is half British, half Indian, but doesn't feel like he fits into either of these identities. He is confused about his life, sexuality, his morality....and tells us all this with some of the funniest dialogue I've ever read. You won't regret reading this.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny, entertaining, and deeper than you realise 18 Sep 2009

By BookWorm TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

A great comic novel set in the 1970s, The Buddha of Suburbia is a coming-of-age story centred on Karim. At the start of the story he is a teenager, desperate to escape suburbia. His chance comes when his father reinvents himself as an unlikely new-age guru and runs off with another woman. It did remind me in some ways of Adrian Mole (though it is not written in diary format), particulary the early chapters. There's the same laugh-out-loud observational comedy and dry humour, the same eccentricity, and the same hint of pathos underlying it all. But it's probably a more literary novel than Mole.

Class is an important theme, as is race, but the latter is not made the focus of the book. The differences between the lives and values of the different social classes in Britain are shown to be as big and difficult to bridge as those of race. I liked that the novel took a different angle on the popular culture-clash issue, and presented it in a fresh and original way.

Karim's narrative voice is full of dry wit, and the characters are wonderfully described. Even though some were eccentric, all were believable. The book spans a number of years and is very well paced, showing how characters grow and develop - or stay the same - over time. It is always interesting and entertaining, and you're never too sure what will happen next, although it's not gripping in the conventional thriller sense. Just a minor warning - there's a lot of sex and drugs and punk music - the first quite graphic in places - so the easily offended reader may wish to think again. But it was nothing unreasonable and nothing worse than you'll find in many modern novels.

If you want a book that is funny and that will make you think, this will do the job nicely.... Read more ›

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› See all 52 customer reviews (newest first) on Amazon.co.uk

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› Go to Amazon.com to see all 37 reviews 4.1 out of 5 stars

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read

Good read and as I am from South London I could relate to the places in the book. Different uplifting an easy read.

Published 5 days ago by Belle1965

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant

I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said. Why did it take me so long to get around to reading this? Read more

Published 21 days ago by P. Wheeler

4.0 out of 5 stars Totally original

Hilarious, unpredictable, sensitive but gritty portrayal of racist Britain in the 70's. a totally original novel that leads the reader through a multitude of experiences,... Read more

Published 24 days ago by Mrs. A. J. Marr

4.0 out of 5 stars Up and down

The more I read the more I enjoyed, as the characters developed it becomes harder to put the book down. Read more

Published 1 month ago by MR D J BRUNNING

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Read!

Any book that name checks the late Kevin Ayers is a winner! It kept me gripped till the end. Highly recommended.

Published 1 month ago by Fine_Old_Tom

4.0 out of 5 stars Amusing and interesting

Amusing tale of life in south London's suburbia, as experienced by a not-entirely Indian family in the late seventies/early eighties, told from the point of view of the teenage... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Kimberly Sims

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting

An interesting story exploring both society and how people fit into it. Especially those who think of themselves on the outside or otherwise apart from it

Published 1 month ago by R. Hale

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for me

I found this book difficult to read and rapidly lost interest in it. It is crude in places and is not a book I would want on my bookshelf.

Published 1 month ago by Dr Leonard M Fenton

3.0 out of 5 stars Buddah

Lovely holiday book, at times a little rambling but overall was enjoyable to read and had some quite interesting moments.

Published 1 month ago by Jenna

1.0 out of 5 stars :(

Dreadful book. Bought as it was a suggestion on a syllabus, read a couple of chapters and put it in the bin.

Published 3 months ago by Mrs G

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