The Word and the Bomb

by Hanif Kureishi

Over the past 10 years Hanif Kureishi has charted the gradual widening of the gulf between fundamentalist Islam and Western values. Starting with THE BLACK ALBUM, Kureishi portrayed the ongoing argument between Islam and Western liberal values, between Islamic certainty and Western rational scepticism. By the time he was writing the short sotry, MY SON THE FANATIC, the break was complete - there was no longer any attempt by the fundmentalists to find any common ground with Western culture.The outbreak of the Iraq war and its aftermath, plus the recent bombings in London, have stimulated Kureishi to write further about this great divide between the East and the West, and this volume collects Kureishi's writings from the past 10 years which have have dealt with this subject, charting Islam's disengangemnt from dialogue with the West.The volume also contains a new piece, written especially for this book, which brings Kureishi's analysis of the situation right up to date.

Genres: Nonfiction, British Literature, Essays, Terrorism

116 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Hanif Kureishi is the author of novels (including The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy), story collections (Love in a Blue Time, Midnight All Day, The Body), plays (including Outskirts, Borderline and Sleep With Me), and screenplays (including My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus). Among his other publications are the collection of essays Dreaming and Scheming, The Word and the Bomb and the memoir My Ear at His Heart.

Kureishi was born in London to a Pakistani father and an English mother. His father, Rafiushan, was from a wealthy Madras family, most of whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947. He came to Britain to study law but soon abandoned his studies. After meeting and marrying Kureishi’s mother Audrey, Rafiushan settled in Bromley, where Kureishi was born, and worked at the Pakistan Embassy.

Kureishi attended Bromley Technical High School where David Bowie had also been a pupil and after taking his A levels at a local sixth form college, he spent a year studying philosophy at Lancaster University before dropping out. Later he attended King’s College London and took a degree in philosophy. In 1985 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980’s London for a film directed by Stephen Frears. It won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.

His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie. The next year, 1991, saw the release of the feature film entitled London Kills Me; a film written and directed Kureishi.

His novel Intimacy (1998) revolved around the story of a man leaving his wife and two young sons after feeling physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. This created certain controversy as Kureishi himself had recently left his wife and two young sons. It is assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical. In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau, which won two Bears at the Berlin Film Festival: a Golden Bear for Best Film, and a Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox). It was controversial for its unreserved sex scenes. The book was translated into Persian by Niki Karimi in 2005.

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.

Kureishi is married and has a pair of twins and a younger son.

Reviews

[Mashaekh Hassan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The selected essays are penned from a critical standpoint. With lucid language, the author has delineated the discomfort of second-generation immigrants, who have a hard time navigating the sense of belonging given they inevitably struggle to completely erase from memory the colonial past. Not having a connection with their national roots makes it easy for them to fall prey to the idealization of religion, the only source of truth to submit to.

Born to Pakistani parents in Britain, Kureishi finds himself more like a Westerner, who is, nonetheless, capable of understanding both the worlds. He is critical to both sides, however, to me it seemed he is more critical towards the Muslim (individuals and communities) living in Europe "too freely", being ignorant about the afterlife, not having a will to ever return to the motherland despite a vibrant feeling of patriotism.


Through the essays, Kureishi has introduced many debates and curated quite a few examples which would sound familiar to anyone from Asian Muslim countries and anyone who knows how Muslims customize their ways of expression while being in a Western country (despite despising the culture).


Available options from the neverending tussle between choosing to live a happy life and to have a danger-free afterlife make sense to different generations differently. That's one of the many debates he introduced and didn't delve deeper. This book is a thought-provoking one in the sense that it will, literally, make you think, however, what further thoughts the author brain-mapped cannot be found in this 100-page book. Still, a good read.

[Krocht Ehlundovič · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of essays playing with ideas about the role/position/relation ship of Muslim communities/individuals in Europe and "Westerners" (does not matter what skin color). Kureishi has Pakistani parents, but he himself consider more as Westerner who can however see into the both worlds. He is pretty critical to the both sides - but I had a feeling that more towards the Muslim people living and enjoying (!) Europe(-an system - social and political). The book contains also some excerpts from his works which describe the problem: young Muslim people vs Muslim parents in Europe, young vs Western society and symbols, generation problem of Muslim people in Pakistan and EU... It reminds me that I shall read some of his works.

The essays are not bad if one wants to have a more plastic picture about what is happening in Europe in relation of various cultures, generations and approaches. We need these kinds of debates, they outline issues which we can latter analyse, propose some models of solutions, try it, assess it and if needed, discard as useless and fake - but without doing it, without trying, speaking, we cannot get anything at all, only stupidity, hate, ignorance and tragedy. Moreover, central European countries like Slovakia should deal with these stuff - how to set the whole system where all can live peacefully (yes, so far at theoretical level!). We should learn, know and form institutions and think-tanks which can study, research, model and formulate programs, methods and strategies of coexistence - with different cultures and ethnics - yes, now! when we have got still some time.

But are we able and willing to think forward?
Are we able to solve problems?
Can we help?

[Seinab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here’s the thing, the book was actually good writing style wise and the way how he explained his point of view regarding specific issues/themes/etc. He even nailed explaining the conflict between the West and Islam and why second generation immigrants tend to be in some cases stricter Muslims than their own parents. BUT the more I read the more I got mad at the way how he explained Islam. His knowledge on Islam was always based on what a random weirdo has told him. And as someone who is educated on Islam, I can tell you what I read was soooo WRONG. Some pages I felt like he was just writing down others opinions, BUT as a author who wants to explain why and how the conflict between the West and Islam emerged isn’t it also your job to enlighten/explain to your readers that this information might be wrong. Unfortunately you did not which brings me to the point how can you write a book trying to achieve more peace and understanding between the west and Islam, but at the same time you are letting false and negative information slip and spread through the book, which is going to make people hate more on Muslims and have less understanding for them. As an author you are literally pouring oil into the fire. From what I understood you are trying to be a bridge between both worlds, but to me that’s just pretending because you can’t speak for Muslims until you are really educated on the subject.

[Liquidambar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probabilmente il vero talento di Kureishi si rivela nella non-fiction: i saggi selezionati sono critici e lucidi, fotografano il disagio degli immigrati di seconda generazione, che faticano a strapparsi di dosso il ricordo del passato coloniale, e cadono prede dell'idealizzazione della religione, l'unica fonte di verità a cui appellarsi.
I racconti, invece, decontestualizzati dall'opera dello scrittore, mi sono parsi poco incisivi, fuori fuoco, anche se "Mio figlio fanatico" resta una lettura fondamentale.

[Sofie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up a very long time ago from the Fiolstræde used book store for DKK 20. One of those books I have had lying around for a long time before reading it. It is : Interesting essays and some novel excerpts. I enjoyed the one from My Son the Fanatic the most, so I will have to pick that one up at some point.

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps if she'd been listening more carefully to literature, especially that of Hanif Kureishi, Condi Rice might have been less surprised by the events of 9/11. But alas literature has no place, no relevance in the zeitgeist of our era. Or does it? That's part of the point of the essays and fiction in this little book: Kureishi discusses the relevance of literature, the word, for religious belief increasingly obsessed with the aesthetics of denial and in cultures increasingly turning to the power of the bomb to advance their beliefs. And, how prescient is Kureishi's work: the pieces in this volume began around the time of the pronounced fatwa against Rushdie following publication of The Satanic Verses and continue through 2005. A small volume this might be but it reminds us of the power of words.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am constantly amazed at the way Hanif Kureishi is able to present the most complex of subjects, in the most clearest and calmest of ways. Whilst I have read parts of this book before, the potency of his words do not fail to resonate still.

"Fundamentalist Islam is an ideology that began to flourish in a conspicuous age of plenty in the West, and in a time of media expansion. Everyone could see via satellite and video not only how wealthy the West was, but how sexualised it had become.....This was particularly shocking for countries that were still feudal. If you were in any sense a Third Worlder, you could either envy Western ideals and aspire to them, or you could envy and reject them. Either way, you could only make a life in relation to them. The new Islam is as recent as postmodernism."

[Yifa Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, this is a collection of previously published material, albeit an important one, bringing together all of Kureishi's writing on fundamentalist Islam. All in all a book that is very pertinent as far as the times we live in go, and definitely worth a read if you haven't read Kureishi's other works.

[Valerie.palmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted this to be better. It's worth it for the essays, but the fiction has already appeared in Black Book and the novella My Son the Fanatic.

[Zaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of very well written and insightful essays.

[Etonmess · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is very obvious that religion is not Kureishi's metier....