Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia

Bart Moore-Gilbert (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1990

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The Buddha of Suburbia

(1990), Kureishi's first novel, is generally considered to be the most successful of his prose fictions. The winner of the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel, it has been translated into more than twenty languages and was adapted into an acclaimed four-part BBC television series in 1993. Like

My Beautiful Laundrette

, it is centred on a mixed-race British-Asian protagonist, Karim Amir, though its historical focus is the 1970s rather than the 1980s. Like this film,

The Buddha

is also at once a “condition of England” piece, an exploration of the changing meanings of “Englishness” and an analysis of the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

At the outset of the novel, Karim's teenage confusions are generated primarily by the breakdown of his parents'

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1011 words

Citation: Moore-Gilbert, Bart. "The Buddha of Suburbia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1371, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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