The Body: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Hanif Kureishi (Author) "HE SAID, Listen: you say you can't hear well and your back hurts..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
At once intriguing and preposterous, Kureishi's slender new novel starts off promisingly. Adam, the narrator, a famous writer in his 60s, is approached at a party by an attractive and mysterious young man named Ralph. Ralph claims to be an old man whose brain has been transplanted into a new, younger body. The bodies come from dead young people, whose deaths seem eerily convenient for those who want to become "Newbodies." At first Adam does not believe the story. But Ralph's entreaties are so convincing-and appealing-that Adam agrees to temporarily transplant his brain into the body of a man of 25. After all, "Who hasn't asked: Why can't I be someone else? Who, really, wouldn't want to live again, given the chance?" The science behind the idea is vague and silly, but Kureishi probably never meant it to be convincing. Instead, he sends Adam on various soul-searching journeys in his new body, which was "stocky and as classically handsome as any sculpture in the British Museum." Adam waxes on his life in a new body, has loads of hot sex and eventually settles at a spiritual retreat on a Greek island. But soon he yearns to return to his old body-warts and all-and to his wife and former life in London. But menacing forces conspire against him, and he soon realizes the grave consequences of his decision. The novel is too short and sketchy to fully explore the ramifications of its premise. Kureishi, through Adam, has many things to say about life in an alien body, but these musings never really cohere. And the creepiness of the setup, which could have made for spine-tingling reading, never amounts to much. Still, the writing, as in Kureishi's other novels (Intimacy; The Buddha of Suburbia), is crisp and precise, and the book should satisfy his fans until something more substantial comes along.
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From Booklist
Kureishi's new novel employs the shopworn device of reporting what happens when part of one person is transplanted into another. In this case, an old man's brain is displaced into a young man's "facility," an extreme measure even in a time when, thanks to aging baby boomers, youth is mourned as a fleeting resource, and the effort to maintain it is pursued with increasing fervor. Sixtysomething London playwright Adam is none too stable mentally, and half-deaf, half-blind, and half-lame, too. He carefully elects the illicit surgical transplant, so his is no sudden, unwanted, Kafka-esque awakening as an insect or transformation into a mammoth breast a la Philip Roth's Breast (1972). Yet many may recall those and other tales of transformation as they follow Adam's journey into newfound hedonism, during which he finds that possessing something of value means one will be pursued by have-nots. Kureishi's smoothly written, fast-moving, thought-provoking work concludes with a man on the run, imprisoned by his "self" and now certainly knowing that time waits for no one. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (February 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743249046
• ISBN-13: 978-0743249041
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #791,131 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Read, March 1, 2004

By	Angie M. Yingst (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I enjoyed this book, but agree with the review, not long enough to really explore the intricacies of such a ridiculous situation. He doesn't try to go into some sort of sci-fi exploration of how scientifically this could happen, but takes the opportunity to explore the philosophical and emotional battles. Though too be fair, any more gratuitous sex, drugs and rock-n-roll and i would have been totally turned off by it. But I would have loved more exploration into the philosphical pull between intellect and physicality. I think Kureishi's mind is so fancy he could have really explored this topic and done some amazing things. I also didn't find think Adam wanted to return to the 60 something body because of fame or fortune, but because of family, love and intimacy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Nightmare Of Eternal Life", September 3, 2008

By	H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

How often have we said, ourselves, or heard someone else say, "If only I could be twenty again and know what I know now?" That is precisely what happens in Hanif Kureishi's novel THE BODY. Adam, a successful writer on the wrong side of sixty describes himself as a man with hemorrhoids, an ulcer and cataracts, whose bed is his "boat across these final years." Fortunately he's a "cheap drunk" and still has sex occasionally with his wife. His two children are grown and have left home. Then he gets the chance to have his brain removed from his old body and put into a dead but preserved young body of his choice. Although he could even choose the body of a young woman or someone of another race, he selects a young humpy Alain Delon look-alike.

This is one of those novels where knowing too much of the plot spoils the story and what a story it is. While you may anticipate some of what happens to Adam, the author in his usual brilliance has a surprise or two for you. In the best science fiction tradition of Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS, Ishiguro's NEVER LET ME GO or even Joyce Carol Oates' recent macabre short story "Wild Nights"-- although like the works of these other world-class writers, Kureishi's fiction is certainly fine literature as well and rises above the genre of science fiction-- he raises questions about our obsession with youth, the dereliction of society of the aged, the loneliness and isolation of being different, the basic human need to be loved and in the circle of friends and finally what he calls the "nightmare of eternal life."

THE BODY is at once a horrific and fantastic gem of a novel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Questions, May 27, 2004

By	Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Adam is a sixtyish writer who has achieved sucess, but is now in failing health. He decides to pursue a most unusual offer--the chance to have his brain (his personality, really) transplanted into a young healthy body. Never mind where this body comes from or how it got that way. He is assured that lots of "in" people are doing this now, becoming "newbodies," with a whole new chance at life, youth, sex, and time.

Good deal? Maybe not. Maybe not so good if you can't take your status with you, if you can't take your friends with you, or your wife, or your relationships. Maybe not if somebody wants your new young body enough to kill you for it, and there's no way to get back to your own.

Yes, the concept is preposterous. It isn't science fiction, as there is no attempt to bring in any science. However it is a concept that has occurred to most of us at one time or another. What if we could live again, be young again, with all the wisdom we've acquired by aging? Would you do it? Would I? Might be fun for a while, but there would be a price to pay. Maybe more than I would be prepared to pay.

Author Hanif Kureishi does a wonderful job with the concept, writing in an elegant, literary style that is simply a delight to read. This is not a book you should over analyze, just enjoy it and let it stimulate your thinking. Yes, the premise is absurd, but the book works. I enjoyed it immensely and I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.