blog




  • MediaDB / «Buddha from the Suburbs" by Hanif Kureishi: download fb2, read online

    About the book: 2002 / What to wish for if you are a half-Indian living in the suburbs of London. If your father walks around the city in national clothes and, having read Hindu books, considers himself a true enlightened person? If your first and only love is Charlie, your stepmother's son? If life around you is a crazy riot of colors, reminiscent of the creations of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and you are spiritually colorblind? Hanif Kureishi knows exactly the answers to all these questions. The Suburban Buddha is the story of a twenty-year-old Indian living in London. Or this is the story of London, where a twenty-year-old Indian lives. It is quite difficult to determine which of them is the scenery and which is the actor. The protagonist’s mental turmoil takes place in London in the 70s - in a separate world full of its own gods and demons. He tries drugs and drinks exotic tea, listens to Pink Floyd, The Who and reads Kerouac. He begins to play in the theater and visits America with his half-brother Charlie, who has become a punk superstar. And at the same time, the main character (Karim) has no idea how to live further. Everything that was dear to him since childhood is gone. His family is destroyed, his closest friend, his cousin Jamila, married an incompetent man who can only read detective novels and visit prostitutes. He is invited to the theater to play the role of Mowgli... “Buddha from the Suburbs” is the story of an entire generation. Moreover, this story has no time frame: London in the 70s can be easily replaced by Moscow in the 90s or 2007. Times change, but the questions remain the same. Who am I? What do I want in this life? Why am I living? Only you yourself can answer these questions. And Kureishi will tell you in which direction to look for them.