Intimacy

Hanif Kureishi's latest novel made many reviewers uneasy on its first appearance, because it cuts so painfully near to the bone. If a novelist's first duty is to tell the truth, then Kureishi has done his duty with unflinching courage. Intimacy gives us the thoughts and memories of a middle-aged writer on the night before he walks out on his wife and two young sons, in favour of a younger woman. A very modern man, without political convictions or religious beliefs, he vaguely hopes to find fulfilment in sexual love. No-one is spared Kureishi's cold, penetrating gaze or lacerating pen. "She thinks she's feminist, but she's just bad- tempered," he says of his abandoned wife. A male friend advises him, "Marriage is a battle, a terrible journey, a season in hell and a reason for living."

At the heart of the novel is this terrible paradox: "You don't stop loving someone just because you hate them." Male readers will wince with recognition at the narrator's hatred of entrapment and domesticity, and his implacable urge towards freedom, escape, even loneliness. Female readers may find it a truly horrific revelation. Kureishi is only telling it like it is, in staccato sentences of pinpoint accuracy. By far the author's best yet: a brilliant, devastating work. --Christopher Hart

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Honesty and integrity if not sympathy - Rated
I loved this book.I am a 40 something now happily married guy and yet can sadly recognise some if not all of the musings and conflicts of Jay, and believe many others (and not just men ) could do the same.Some reviewers have said this is an uncomfortable read ....it is...but none the less enjoyable for that.
Highly recommended to those who can take some self criticsism and be prepared to look at themselves in the mirror!!!

Poignant take on the break down of a relationship - Rated
My God ... midlife crisis and some. This novella shows the dark side of the male pysche in technicolour. Written in the first person ... it is an interesting, if introspective, polemic. The central protagonist has given little thought to what he wants from his life, family or relationship. He is a man who seems to have drifted into something without really reflecting upon the long term consequences. Well written, realistic - if not a little hopeless.

a must read - Rated
picked it up at an airport per chance 6 years ago - and since remains one of my all time favorite books. simplistically written yet powerfully insightful. each sentence is thought provoking. it demonstrates the strength and weakness of the human psyche - how easily we can adapt to any change - even if it means disconnecting from reality - yet how difficult it is for us to reconnect.

you want to hate the protagonist - yet you forgive him because he is so acutely self-aware.

The way we live now - Rated
Every sentence is honest and wise. It's a man's book, and at last. We've had enough of female sensitivity and whining feminism. "Intimacy" is about how we live now, and about how we must never give up the pursuit of happiness.

One of my all time favourites - Rated
This is indeed one of my all time favourites. I must say I enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed Proust, Woolf and Hemingway. It is the story of a man who plans to leave his wife, the next morning, and we follow his thoughts through that night. It is utterly frank and honest, and I believe based in true events of Kureishi's life. But this is not what makes it good. Kureishi here makes the break from the forms that have been holding him back for years. The structure of his novels Black Album and Buddha were very conventional and restricted, in my mind, a lot of his talent was cramped and repressed by these walls which he must have thought he needed to be contained in. But he has broken free. His short story work is formidable, and he finds, I think, in these short formats, the ability to express himself with the freedom and honesty of a true artist. The same goes for this short novel. It holds many truths and sublime observations, often simple and insouciant, yet always universal and human. This, I believe, will always be one of my favourite novels, and is, in fact, alongside one or two of Woolf's, my favourite English book. It is by far the best work of contemporary Britain, I think. There is no one around who has achieved this level of artistry, although most writers these days seem concerned only with commercial saleability or technical proficiency. This book is not a feel-good novel, so don;t buy it expecting that. And although it has a certain 'gravitas' about it, it really is a pure and direct form of artistic communication, and for this reason I reccomend it - it should touch a level of emotion reserved only for the greats, and will stay with you, as it did me.