Gabriel's Gift

Oh my… but this was so profoundly awful on every level that I can hardly believe I read it, let alone that for some unfathomable and criminal reason, it was once placed on the 1001 list.

Badly written with flat characters who say and do entirely predictable things, this has a plot that, if Kureishi could actually write, might not be half bad. But he can’t write and the novel thus turns out wholly bad.

Gabriel’s parents separate and his father, a failed musician, attempts to salvage something for his future by reconnecting with Lester Jones, a famous rock musician he once played with in the 1970s. This results in Gabriel receiving a gift of a drawing from Lester. To protect his possession from his money-grubbing relatives, Gabriel show more duplicates the drawing and passes his own copies off as originals to more than one member of the cast. This ploy soon lands him in a dilemma, and this is where a good writer would have tied the plot in farcical knots. Kureishi’s simple attempt unravels at the first step with no surprises, and in the end everything resolves itself as if he was writing a screenplay for Disney.

Waste. Of. Time.

The eponymous Gabriel is supposedly 15, but you wouldn’t know it from some of the situations Kureishi puts him in:

At work [his mother] was like a woman he used to know.

This must mean he’s experienced enough to not only know a range of women but to have moved on from a few of them and achieved some kind of history with the opposite sex. More experienced than I was at 15 that’s for sure.

Not only does this 15-year-old understand avant gardism without any context or explanation, he dedicates his life to it:

‘At night even the most conservative of us becomes an avant gardist,’ his mother had said.
Gabriel was very interested in this. ‘I want to be an avant gardist all the time,’ he said.

The banality doesn’t stop there. I could have quoted swathes of the text for badly constructed writing that defines contrivance, but instead, I’ll just give one example of when Gabriel is sketching a pair of his boots alone in his room late one night:

In the centre of the page was a boot-shaped hole. As he turned the page, the boots were sucked back onto it, and everything returned to normal.
Or did it?

I expected the next line to read “duh duuuuuuuhhhhhh” and to hear 1950s gothic horror film music at this point, but everything just carried on as normal.

Or did it?

Actually, yeah, it did. I couldn’t wait for it to end. He writes so badly that at times I thought I was reading the first draft he’d put together when he’d had aspirations of being a writer at primary school. I honestly don’t think anyone would be worse off not having read this. show less

A child's view of the world makes ordinary occurances and typical family drama seem new and exciting, and it is clear that Kureishi has drawn upon this technique to drive his story of a torn family. The parental figures are typical washouts from 1960s-era London whose surprise at finding how mundane and unsuccessful their lives are makes them bitter and self-loathing, but through Gabiel's eyes they are just his parents. He may not fully grasp why they are such children, but he knows that he must not be like them at all costs. He must find his passion and utilize his talent so that his life doesn't default to somewhere boring and unfulfilling. Overall, this was a very interesting read, but I'm still not quite sure how old Gabriel is, show more since people treat him like a young child, but he acts and thinks like a much older teenager. show less

'Gabriel's Gift tells the story of 15-year old Gabriel, whose parents had just separated and now has to deal not only with being a teenager, but also his parents problems. Gabriel was born a twin but when he was a toddler his twin brother Archie died of meningitis. Now that he is a teenager his relation to his parents is not an easy one. Sometimes he feels that he is really loved and cared for but at others he it feels like he is the grown up one. Things shift when a famous pop star gives Gabriel a picture drawn by himself, both of his parents seem determined on having it for themselves.

Hanif Kureishi is a well respected author. His screenplay 'My Beautiful Laundrette' received an Oscar nomination, and one of the characters from that show more novel, Karim, even makes a cameo appearance here but somehow I just missed the whole point of this one and it was a disappointment to me.

In some respects, the story is a good one, focusing as it does on the post-60s generation. Both of Gabriel's parents could be seen as being both comic and 'cool'. His father Rex, was once the bass player for 70s rock idol Lester Jones who was ousted from the band not because of any creative arguments or lack of talent but due to a freak accident, (he fell off his platform shoes breaking an ankle). But he starts the book as a work-shy layabout living in a squalid bed-sit. Nor was his transformation from loser to inspired music teacher terribly believable. Meanwhile his mother Christine, a one-time seamstress to pop stars, is now a waitressing 'party girl' bringing home a string of men-friends. In the end both simply come across as selfish, wallowing in nostalgia and bemoaning missed opportunities. Unfortunately Gabriel's character never really develops enough to carry the weight of the story.

The narrative slips inconsistently between first and third person but my biggest issue was that I never really worked out what the 'Gift' in the title referred to. Was it Gabriel’s ability to bring his drawings to life, which simply peters out without explanation? Or was the Gift the picture that Lester Jones gave him? Or was it his hinted at, artistic genius? In truth I'm not sure just why this is on the 1001 list. show less

Absolutely loved Kureishi's writing. In a matter of a few sentences the reader is whisked into the mind and heart of an adolescent boy trying to understand the rollercoaster which is life. At the core of this novella is the question of how to hold onto imagination? How to hold onto losses...a twin, a marriage, the truth, ideals? Wonderfully crafted, this book is a gem!

small book about some london's family, no recommendet

A great read that keeps interest and the pages turning.

Gabriel er 15 år da moren hans kaster ut faren. Hun er fed up av mannens tiltaksløshet og mangel på retning i livet sitt. Faren må ta til takke med en heller trist hybeltilværelse, og han er konstant blakk. Det lille han har går stort sett til øl, og han skylder penger i øst og vest. Samtidig flytter den øst-europeiske au pairen Hannah inn hos Gabriel og moren. Hannah har to store interesser i livet; å spise og se på TV. Moren har ansatt henne for å hindre at Gabriel havner på skråplanet. Selv er hun nemlig aldri hjemme.

Faren er en avdanket rocker som aldri ble berømt, noe han egentlig aldri har klart å avfinne seg med. Karrieren som bassist i Lester Jones´ band tok en brå slutt da han datt ned fra platåskoene sine show more en gang på 70-tallet, og ødela ankelen. Nå er han dypt deprimert og om mulig enda mer tiltaksløs.

Gabriel blir stående mellom foreldrene sine, og alle skilsmissebarn vil kjenne seg godt igjen i den kommunikasjonen som foregår mellom foreldrene via barnet. Gabriel får ikke tid til sitt eget liv fordi han må støtte foreldrene sine, og planene om å lage film legges på is.

En dag får han være med faren på besøk hos Lester Jones, og dette møtet blir vendepunktet ikke bare i Gabriels liv, men også i farens og etter hvert morens liv.

Dette er en herlig og morsom roman som jeg anbefaler på det varmeste! show less