Not nearly as comic and provocative as I had hoped it to be. While the beginning had merit, this book went in a direction that was unexpected and not nearly as fun as the first part which is about the "Buddha of suburbia." Rathe than focus on the Buddha, the story focused on his son - a not very interesting character who wanders aimlessly through his life in London, New Your, and back again in London. There are supporting characters/caricatures of Indians living in London who add some comic relief. ( )

Very lovely ( )

Set in England in the 1970s, seventeen-year-old protagonist Karim was born to an English mother and Indian father. The first half of the book takes place in the suburbs and the second half in London. The novel is filled with 1970s pop culture references. It was a time of massive cultural change. It was also a time of emerging forms of self-expression, and Karim decides to become an actor. His friend, Charlie, decides to become a singer. His father, Haroon, is the titular “Buddha of Suburbia,” and Karim’s family dynamics play a key role in the story. It is told from Karim’s perspective, looking back on his youth.

This is a story of a search for identity. Even in multicultural London, Karim cannot escape racial stereotyping. The plot follows Karim’s struggle to fit into a society in which he sees himself as belonging (since he was born there) but is assumed to be “other” based on his appearance. Once he reaches his initial goal of living the city, he finds just as much narrow-mindedness as he encountered in the suburbs.

This book is well-written, witty, and, at times, bawdy. It is filled with irreverent humor. I was not sure I would like it at first since I do not usually have a high tolerance for graphic sexual content but ended up enjoying it immensely. I have never read anything quite like it.
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This book takes the reader on a trip through the London suburbs onto the metropolis and then out into the wider world. It’s also a journey through the cultural and political landscape of 1970s England as we travel from counterculture to Thatcherism. It’s a very funny novel overflowing with serious themes: cultural and sexual identity, the suffocating conformity of the suburbs and the vertiginous liberation of the city, self-fulfilment versus obligation, materialism and spirituality, social class and ambition and the parasitic nature of art. It’s the story of teenager Karim Amir, the son of a white English mother and Indian father, growing up in Bromley and hungry for adventure. In addition to its lightness of touch it possesses an organic narrative flow and never feels as though Kureishi is working through a checklist of Important Issues.

Buddha is a novel of complex and subtly shifting characterisation with Kureishi repeatedly subverting stereotypes and the reader’s initial assumptions about the characters. Self-transformation is another of the central themes and most of the characters are busy becoming someone else. The suburban Buddha of the title is Karim’s father, Haroon, a Civil Servant who reinvents himself as a Buddhist guru to white upmarket neo-hippies. My initial impression was of an opportunist dispensing platitudes to the credulous. By the end of the novel his refusal to remain trapped in a soul-destroying job beneath his natural abilities seemed more than understandable and his concern with spiritual values not so trite after all as Margaret Thatcher, that ultimate materialist, is elected Prime Minister.

Kureishi captures the zeitgeist of ‘70s London: ambitious middle class boys becoming rich and famous by reinventing themselves as no future proletarian punks; hippies turning into yuppies; radical plays attacking middle class society being lapped up by middle class audiences; revolutionary workers parties with lots of actors in them acting out the revolution but no actual workers; and racism as the all-pervasive mood music. The absurdities of the period are caught with satiric verve along with its idealistic and transformative energy.

Karim’s first-person narrative of self-discovery contains plenty of sex, drugs and profanity but also an intoxicating sense of life opening out and a world of possibilities opening up. That sense of endless possibility you have when young, greedy for experience and making your way in the world by making yourself up as you go along.

A coming of age tale told with humour, truth and poignancy. ( )

It was great to revisit this book and discuss it with my book group. It's as much about class and social mobility as about race and sexuality, but there is plenty of all these things. Karim is a great character, young and reckless, open to everything that comes his way. In fact all the characters are larger than life and leap off the page.
It's set pretty locally to where I live which adds to the fun, though its probably a bit less grim and racist round here these days.
It's really evocative of the music, permissiveness and chaos of 1970s London alongside the gritty grey reality of the suburbs. ( )