Hulme's Investigations Into The Bogart Script

by Zulfikar Ghose

Book by Ghose, Zulfikar

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Zulfikar Ghose (born in Sialkot, India (now Pakistan) on March 13, 1935) is a novelist, poet and essayist. A native of Pakistan who has long lived in Texas, he writes in the surrealist mode of much Latin American fiction, blending fantasy and harsh realism.

He became a close friend of British experimental writer B. S. Johnson, with whom he collaborated on several projects, and of Anthony Smith. The three writers met when they served as joint editors of an annual anthology of student poets called Universities' Poetry. Ghose also met English poet Ted Hughes and his wife, the American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath, and American author Janet Burroway, with whom he occasionally collaborated.
While teaching and writing in London from 1963–1969, Ghose also free-lanced as a sports journalist, reporting on cricket for The Observer newspaper. Two collections of his poetry were published, The Loss of India (1964) and Jets From Orange (1967), along with an autobiography called Confessions of a Native-Alien (1965) and his first two novels, The Contradictions (1966) and The Murder of Aziz Khan (1969). The Contradictions explores differences between Western and Eastern attitudes and ways of life.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hulme’s Investigations is a riotous read, recalling the freewheeling western fictions of Ishmael Reed, and subverts the clichés of the classic western through hilarious pastiche and withering observation. A paean, of sorts, to his adopted homeland, where as of 1969 Ghose began his professorship at the University of Texas, where he has remained for his entire working career. Protagonist Walt is a vagabond whose fragmented adventures take place in an atemporal America that is old west in timbre, modern in humour (childish innuendo and brash satire pervades), and the novel alchemises Ghose’s readings of quintessential American poets such as Crane, Williams, Stevens, and Cumming into an imaginative conception of America past and present, incorporating myth, cinematic cliché, and pieces of 19th century travel writing of those heading west into his own resplendent lyrical and outrageous style. Find this somehow, ye spade-wielders!

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

a kaleidoscopic hoot fest of noir cliches, western novels and movie tropes, the ideas of usa'ers westering/westerning for fame profit and wanderlust, sex, sex appeal, and womens rights, and our good old friends the fbi cia (nsa and homeland security now in 21st century [feeling safer?]) and even some cameos (but in a fun way) by pawnees and other indians.
not too many, but enough late 1970's-1980 allusions and nods to usa politics, wars, and capitalisms to make fun of , as they were/are such easy targets. an obscure book and author (says me, but perhaps not, idk) worth looking for.