A remarkable insight into the birth of a writer, and the moving discovery of family secrets. When Hanif Kureishi discovers an abandoned manuscript of his father's his understanding of the family history is transformed. So begins a journey which takes Kureishi through his father's privileged childhood by the sea in Bombay, to the trauma of partition and to his adult life hidden away in the suburbs of Bromley - his days spent as a minor functionary in the Pakistan embassy in London, his nights writing prose, hopeful of one day receiving literary recognition. This is a book about his father's failed career as a writer and the beginnings of Kureishi's successful career as one - as his father looks on with pride and perhaps envy.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"'Hanif Kureishi's literary memoir explores his relationship with his father, a failed writer. Kurieshi is, of course, hugely successful...' Esquire This is an ambitious book. Kureshi - free-associating with what feels like unmitigated honesty - successfully conveys the impression that in this book he has actually given us himself.' Sunday Times 'Deeply involving, highly intelligent and, in what it doesn't say rather than what it does, profoundly sad.' Evening Standard 'I don't think he has done anything as good, in any medium, as this moving and fiercely honest book.' Guardian"
--This text refers to the
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About the Author
Hanif Kureishi was born and brought up in Kent. He read philosophy at King's College, London. He is the author of numerous novels, short story collections, screenplays and plays.
--This text refers to the
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Expected more from it,
By A reader (Seattle) - See all my reviews
This review is from: My Ear at His Heart (Paperback)
I was really looking forward to this book, as I like Mr. Kureishi's writing style. It started off promising, as an engrossing biography-type read, but ended up sounding like a term paper with the subject being 'How I became a writer'. If I was the professor grading it, I would have it given a B-. Kureishi began by examining his father's past, and then talked some about his father's relatives, and then when he felt that he ran out of that kind of material he talked about himself and his own friends. Not a good idea. I wanted to read more of the elder Kureishi's manuscripts, and learn more about him as a writer, albeit an unpublished one. It seemed like the son was critical of the father as a writer and I didn't like that, even if the son is the better, and more successful, writer. I can imagine that it would be difficult to write a book about one's parents, because all of one's judgments and pre-set opinions are already hard-wired in the brain. But if you've set your mind to do it you might as well do it right. And this book, while it isn't "wrong", didn't really go where I was hoping it would.
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