The Black Album

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SPLIT LOYALTIES - Rated
Kureishi has brought up a number of issues which British-Asians go through everyday. His story has a number of twists and turns which keeps the reader captivated throughout from the main character's personal struggles Kureishi revisits territory familiar from his film-script "My Beautiful Laundrette" and his debut novel "The Buddha of Suburbia". A highly relevant story on multi-culturalism and the 'state of the nation' during the Thatcher years, focusing on relations between races and the predicament of British youth. More specifically it engages with the controversies surrounding the imposition of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie in 1989. Pre-occupied with popular culture and music, the novel takes it title from an album by Prince. Price is a key symbol within the text of the enabling potential of cultural hybridism in expanding received models of national and ethnic identity, thus challenging the fundamentalist of metropolitan racism and 3rd world politics alike. Recommended read!

Islam-ain't-bad - Rated
Kureshi once again effortlessly combines dark humour with contemporary issues as he writes about being a young British Muslim growing up in the turbulent 80s. The driving force is the tension between the pull of the sensual, liberal ideals of the west, and the weight of traditional Islamic expectations. Suavely intelligent as always, Kureshi's themes have never been more relevant.

An intelligent amusing book about cultural identity - Rated
I loved this book and found it well written and pertinent to many of the issues of a multicultural society. It addresses the problems of growing up as a British Asian and the tension between traditional and liberal values. It is very relevant to these days of cultural antagonism and also very amusing and touching. I think everyone should read this book. The plot is not confusing and the story is relevant to our times.

Rushdie without prentention - Rated
Compared to "The Buddha of suburbia", I felt "The black album" was a little overconstructed, self-conscious and the plot was maybe a bit farfetched. It lacked some of the lightness and humour which I really liked in "The Buddha..."

Still, this is a fine novel about identity and multiculturalism. Clever, straightforward, sparkling.

Kureishi at his most optimistic and enjoyable - Rated
The Black Album is essentially a comic picaresque novel - the story of a young man in search of experience, torn between the conflicting attractions of religious idealism and sexual love. It is Kureishi at his most effortless and in many ways superior to "The Buddha of Suburbia" - much sunnier in outlook than his later work.