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The Buddha of Suburbia
Hanif Kureishi's semi-autobiographical novel about a young man growing up half-Indian, half-English, and bisexual in late '70's/early '80's London. A novel that makes us laugh out loud reading, also deals with the complexities of race, class, and sexual orientation. The book centers around a teenager named Karim, whose adventures begin after his wealthy Indian father finds "spiritual awakening" during a mid-life crisis. It also covers many social issues like silence and assimilation in a humorous and self-depreciating fashion.
The main character and the narrator of the story Karim really interest me and at the same time his personality really bothers me. I thought he was a typical teenager with problems growing up, especially when his family insists on throwing interesting challenges at him which he had to deal with along with the trouble of being a teen. It was interesting to read what Karim does and how he faces his problems. He experiments with his new ideas in his search to find himself. His life is also a good example of a second generation person having many problems to encounter besides the usual racism and stereotypes. But apart from all these I think he is a very self-centered and self-obsessed person and these qualities of his personality really made his own family suffer. He is always waiting something important to happen to him but uncertain as to what that thing is exactly. He always sees the people around him as example of what he could become and he senses who is pure and who is not and more than anything he wants to remain interesting and inspired. He is always searching to meet his own needs but was of no help when his family really needed him. I thought he was the only person who could have saved his own family from becoming dysfunctional but instead he supported his Father. He was the only one who knew about his Fathers affair but remained silent. He never said anything to his father apart from few comments. This is not only because he loved his father but also his own interests were involved. He thought the only way to become successful and to get out of the society he was leaving, was to move out with his dad's lover who was a very ambitious person and he liked ambitious people. But never for a moment he thought he was sacrificing his family, specially his mother for his own happiness and goal.
The book "The Buddha of Suburbia" isn't spectacular just because it handles important issues with such sharpness, but because it seems so relevant to the life of the second generation here. It's told with such hard-hitting, direct prose that I couldn't help but know with heart-aching sadness that what happens to Karim throughout the novel actually does happen to the young generations whose parents migrated from foreign countries.