Love in a Blue Time [Paperback]

Hanif Kureishi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 1998

Hanif Kureishi, author of "The Buddha of Suburbia", is one of a generation of British writers whose experience of the United Kingdom is refracted, socially and culturally, through his Pakistani heritage. The stories in this collection incorporate the humour, bawdiness and aggression of his novels.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This collection of ten short stories by the author of the highly acclaimed My Beautiful Laundrette and other screenplays shares a common theme: a non-Westerner's sense of alienation from mainstream Western society. In some, the characters are Pakistani immigrants enduring subtle or overt racism in lower-class London. Most often, however, the narrator is a moderately successful writer living in London who indulges in drugs, meaningless sex, and exploitative relationships. Kureishi seems to extend his range in one story by getting inside the character of a streetwise young woman who goes to Pakistan to visit her wealthy father, yet the narrator turns out to be that same male persona manipulating the character. Even when touched by success, the characters are morally hollow and treat each other to petty cruelties and easy betrayals. These stories are sexually explicit, sometimes scatological, cynical, and very disturbing, yet they are not without considerable insight into human nature.?Reba Leiding, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

An ebulliently realistic collection from savvy British screenwriter and novelist Kureishi (The Black Album, 1995, etc.). It's refreshing to read a writer of such alert and unaffected skill. Unlike American minimalists, Kureishi looks outward and into the lives of others, coming back with fiction that is large, rugged, and true. And his canny imagination avoids sentimental missteps. In ``The Flies,'' for instance, chronicling an infestation of insects in the life of a young couple, he writes with a mordant flair for the parable and grotesque that recalls Kafka: ``At night he begins to dream of ragged bullet-shaped holes chewed in fetid fabric, and of creamy white eggs hatching in darkness. In his mind he hears the amplified rustle of gnawing, chewing, devouring.'' Kureishi is above all a social observer, offering shrewd reports on a generation of urban Brits who've survived their youth and don't know what's supposed to happen next: career, money, marriage, or the more vertiginous and splendid pleasures of liberty prolonged. Avoiding moral judgment, he can sympathize with all concerned--while sporadically tweaking them, as he does particularly well in ``The Tale of the Turd,'' in which a 44-year-old ne'er-do-well goes to dinner at the home of his 18- year-old girlfriend's all too respectable parents. Existentially uneasy, he winds up in the loo, mid-supper, with one big problem to face: ``I glance at the turd and notice little teeth in its velvet head, and a little mouth opening.'' After semi-mortal combat with this unwanted guest, he throws it out the window: ``On, on, one goes, despite everything, not knowing why or how.'' Kureishi's characters do mostly choose to go on, even when they've run out of drugs, money, lodging, and friends. The charm of their jaunty style of perseverance is not small. Some find a moment's redemption or two in Kureishi's ever more apt evocations of sex, earthily unromantic and serenely accurate. Roguish intelligence is everywhere here. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Faber Paperbacks (January 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 057119222X
• ISBN-13: 978-0571192229
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,607,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I liked "The Flies" the best, June 3, 2005

By 

A reader (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love in a Blue Time (Hardcover)

This is a small book of short stories, but for some reason it took me awhile to finish it. It was my third foray into Kureishi territory (The Black Album and the Buddha of Suburbia were first) and I have to say now, somewhat regrettably, that I'm hooked. I didn't, and don't, always enjoy reading his subject matter, but as an aspiring writer myself, his work continues to impress me. He is a talented literary artist, which is something that most average writers aspire to be. In this book, he writes in an economic style, and gives life to his stories with well told action, realistic dialogue, interesting conflicts and memorable characters. But the true strength of this book is in the passages, and in how emotion is communicated in an evocative, and often poetic way. His work often has a distinct dramatic and theatrical element, which could explain the multiple successes of his books' translations into plays and films. He rarely shies away from tough topics, and he indeed does have a special talent in exploring and explaining the depths of the human soul. He is able to tap into the minds and viewpoints of his many characters, and change the perspective of the story, which again is something that only the talented writer can manage successfully. I really like that his characters are always true to their character, and they never say or do anything that seems contradictory. In this book, I most enjoyed the stories "We're Not Jews", "D'Accord, Baby", and "The Flies". The latter is a morose and highly repulsive tale, but artfully done and very memorable nonetheless. I kind of look at these stories as "mood pieces", and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone looking for something light and cheery. But if you're in the market to explore some serious literary work, pick it up and maybe, like me, you'll be impressed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Introduction to Kureishi's World, May 16, 2001

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: LOVE IN A BLUE TIME: SHORT STORIES (Paperback)

For those (like me) familiar with Kureishi only via his film work, the stories here will not surprise, as they exhibit his usual sensitive approach to the themes of cross-cultural difficulties and men completely adrift in their middle-age. The ten stories--most in the 5-15 page range with three 40+ pagers mixed in--are fairly mixed in quality, there are a few failures, but what is good is exceedingly good. In the cross-cultural difficulties category are three workmanlike, but unremarkable stories: "We're Not Jews," "With Your Tongue Down My Throat," and "My Son the Fanatic." The latter offers an excellent example of how a somewhat offhand short story can be turned into a quite compelling and powerful film. The other seven stories all deal in one way or another with men struggling to come to terms with marriage, responsibility, commitment, and sheer growing up--or more often, not struggling but trying to simply avoid it all. Two of these, "The Flies" and "The Tale of the Turd" wander off into Gogolish territory to no great effect. Kureishi's writing is inarguably strong, and he's able to make his characters come alive with a minimum of words, and often with a fair dose of humor. But while it's fun to read the stories just to enjoy good writing, too many of these men start to feel like they're living under the same desperate cloud, which gets tiresome.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kureishi should stick to Short Stories, February 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Love in a Blue Time (Hardcover)

Kureishi's got this great gift to create amazingly fleshed out characters that we've all known or wanted to know, have been or wanted to be. Almost all of the stories are immensely readable--not because we want to know what will happen, but beacuse we want to know what the character thinks about what will happen. Not surprisingly, then, the weakest stories are those that abandon the first-person ("In a Blue Time" comes to mind). Kureishi soars when he lets us into the thoughts of his beautifully maladjusted characters. Plot and structure are of secondary consideration, which is just as well, since I'd buy the book if it simply contained character sketches.