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Tourism
Set in the long hot summer of 2002, Tourism is a filthy, unflinching and politically incorrect take on modern Britain by an extraordinary young Sikh writer.
Bhupinder 'Puppy' Singh Johal — handsome, rakish and spiritually disenfranchised — has left behind the immigrant neighbourhood of Southall to mix with the elite of metropolitan London society. Sexually ambitious, he is intent on living life to the full, regardless of the consequences. When sloaney rich-girl Sophie falls for him, he grabs the chance to escape his past and pursue the woman of his dreams, the voluptuous sophisticate Sarupa, who happens to be engaged to Sophie’s cousin.
Using whatever and whoever he can, Puppy explores the grit and glamour of a city seething with the possibilities and politics of money, race and an incendiary cocktail that explodes, changing him and those closest to him forever...
Bhupinder 'Puppy' Singh Johal — handsome, rakish and spiritually disenfranchised — has left behind the immigrant neighbourhood of Southall to mix with the elite of metropolitan London society. Sexually ambitious, he is intent on living life to the full, regardless of the consequences. When sloaney rich-girl Sophie falls for him, he grabs the chance to escape his past and pursue the woman of his dreams, the voluptuous sophisticate Sarupa, who happens to be engaged to Sophie’s cousin.
Using whatever and whoever he can, Puppy explores the grit and glamour of a city seething with the possibilities and politics of money, race and an incendiary cocktail that explodes, changing him and those closest to him forever...
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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222 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 17, 2025
You'll feel like you need a shower after immersing yourself in the sleazy adventures of Tourism's dashing, handsome, and excellently self-loathing protagonist, 'Puppy' Singh Johal.
We first meet Puppy when he realises he's nurturing a grain of humanity deep within his lost soul, and he needs something resembling love and meaning in his life.
Fortunately, for fans of other people's life spirals, he goes about it in all the wrong ways, palling about with a hedonistic London media circle populated by monied, deeply unpleasant acquaintances, girlfriends and frenemies.
Toxic and fabulous. And apparently based on the author's real life romance with car crash tabloid columnist, Liz Jones. Fancy that.
We first meet Puppy when he realises he's nurturing a grain of humanity deep within his lost soul, and he needs something resembling love and meaning in his life.
Fortunately, for fans of other people's life spirals, he goes about it in all the wrong ways, palling about with a hedonistic London media circle populated by monied, deeply unpleasant acquaintances, girlfriends and frenemies.
Toxic and fabulous. And apparently based on the author's real life romance with car crash tabloid columnist, Liz Jones. Fancy that.
March 23, 2014
Very unimpressed. I have read many novels where the main character is, basically, not very nice but there is usually something intriguing about their character. Or the novel is written in a way that is humourous. Or the author has something insightful to say. The main character in this story has no redeeming features. He is arrogant, selfish, and appears to loath everything and everybody around him. His observations of those around him are just plain mean and nasty. And the author doesn't appear to have anything, let alone anything of importance, to say.
I was a bit annoyed with one scene in particular, with his friends mother. I'm sure the author was trying to tell the reader something but couldn't figure out what exactly it was. He didn't really know this woman. He had his own mother who he hardly ever spoke to. What was it meant to be about?!?
I had been told before reading the book that it was "flithy", which would at least be something. But I don't agree, it was quite tame.
As for the ending - well, I can usually tell how a book will end within the first chapter and I did with this book too. That is never usually a complaint. I like that I can figure it out, although when a twist happens that I didn't expect I can enjoy that too. But with this book I was just willing it to end differently and was so, so disappointed when it didn't.
I was a bit annoyed with one scene in particular, with his friends mother. I'm sure the author was trying to tell the reader something but couldn't figure out what exactly it was. He didn't really know this woman. He had his own mother who he hardly ever spoke to. What was it meant to be about?!?
I had been told before reading the book that it was "flithy", which would at least be something. But I don't agree, it was quite tame.
As for the ending - well, I can usually tell how a book will end within the first chapter and I did with this book too. That is never usually a complaint. I like that I can figure it out, although when a twist happens that I didn't expect I can enjoy that too. But with this book I was just willing it to end differently and was so, so disappointed when it didn't.
November 16, 2011
This is awful. The writing is so bad it hurts. I don't know how Dhaliwal found a publisher.
February 2, 2015
Great book
August 4, 2021
Two stars. I'm probably being generous.
An awkward book that feels semi-autobiographical. Puppy is an Indian guy leading an aimless life in mid 2000s London. He masquerades as a writer but isn't very good at it. All he really wants to do is sleep with some Indian girl, Sapura, who hangs with the in crowd. She doesn't seem that interesting to be honest, but for the sake of the story, Puppy becomes infatuated with sleeping with her. Unfortunately for Puppy she is engaged to a rich white guy. Puppy is neither rich, nor white, and carries around a lot of angst about this.
Puppy's day begins with smoking cigarettes and either hanging with his rich friends and taking drugs, or hanging with his loser friends and drinking alcohol. Sometimes he has sex with skanky hookers. The repetition gets boring.
When he's not getting stoned or drunk, Puppy has inconsequential sex with his dumb model girlfriend (who he inexplicably ends up with), and descends into depression about how his life sucks and how unfair it is for children of immigrants who can't deal with the weight of expectations. The repetition gets boring.
Eventually he ends up sleeping with Sapura because the plot demands it and the author gets to write some stupid sex scenes.
The problem with this story is Puppy as a character is unlikeable and for all his problems, has only himself to blame. It comes across as conceited. The social commentary is initially interesting to take a young British Indian man's view of the world but it soon comes across as the author being bitter about the hand he was dealt.
Inconsequential young women are parachuted into the story just so the author can describe their bodies and Puppy can imagine sleeping with them. A successful but middle aged and somewhat pathetic male character gets parachuted into the story just to make some point about the author at least not being white and pathetic. Useless white teenagers get parachuted into the story for the author to make a point that at least he wasn't a useless white teenager. Then at the end we get some grandstanding about how white people who do yoga are pathetic because they are not Indian. This whole book has a subtext of the author being bitter about white people. Yawn. If I wanted to read that I could do it on the internet.
If the author wanted to make Puppy a cynic and get mileage from the social commentary then he could have at least made him an anti hero. Or alternatively make him do something unexpected with his life. Become a rock star against the odds, or a drug lord or something, anything, to make him an interesting character.
Yeah there are a lot of sex scenes but the cavalier way the author uses the C word gets abrasive and the insinuation that his dick is big because he is Indian just comes across as wishful thinking.
The exploits of a loser don't get you very far unless there's an interesting story to tell. I got bored. Sorry.
This book seems to have only been published because the author's (then) wife was writing in some British newspapers.
An awkward book that feels semi-autobiographical. Puppy is an Indian guy leading an aimless life in mid 2000s London. He masquerades as a writer but isn't very good at it. All he really wants to do is sleep with some Indian girl, Sapura, who hangs with the in crowd. She doesn't seem that interesting to be honest, but for the sake of the story, Puppy becomes infatuated with sleeping with her. Unfortunately for Puppy she is engaged to a rich white guy. Puppy is neither rich, nor white, and carries around a lot of angst about this.
Puppy's day begins with smoking cigarettes and either hanging with his rich friends and taking drugs, or hanging with his loser friends and drinking alcohol. Sometimes he has sex with skanky hookers. The repetition gets boring.
When he's not getting stoned or drunk, Puppy has inconsequential sex with his dumb model girlfriend (who he inexplicably ends up with), and descends into depression about how his life sucks and how unfair it is for children of immigrants who can't deal with the weight of expectations. The repetition gets boring.
Eventually he ends up sleeping with Sapura because the plot demands it and the author gets to write some stupid sex scenes.
The problem with this story is Puppy as a character is unlikeable and for all his problems, has only himself to blame. It comes across as conceited. The social commentary is initially interesting to take a young British Indian man's view of the world but it soon comes across as the author being bitter about the hand he was dealt.
Inconsequential young women are parachuted into the story just so the author can describe their bodies and Puppy can imagine sleeping with them. A successful but middle aged and somewhat pathetic male character gets parachuted into the story just to make some point about the author at least not being white and pathetic. Useless white teenagers get parachuted into the story for the author to make a point that at least he wasn't a useless white teenager. Then at the end we get some grandstanding about how white people who do yoga are pathetic because they are not Indian. This whole book has a subtext of the author being bitter about white people. Yawn. If I wanted to read that I could do it on the internet.
If the author wanted to make Puppy a cynic and get mileage from the social commentary then he could have at least made him an anti hero. Or alternatively make him do something unexpected with his life. Become a rock star against the odds, or a drug lord or something, anything, to make him an interesting character.
Yeah there are a lot of sex scenes but the cavalier way the author uses the C word gets abrasive and the insinuation that his dick is big because he is Indian just comes across as wishful thinking.
The exploits of a loser don't get you very far unless there's an interesting story to tell. I got bored. Sorry.
This book seems to have only been published because the author's (then) wife was writing in some British newspapers.
January 25, 2023
Well I have to thoroughly disagree with those that have posted negative reviews in respect of this book. This is the second book I've finished this year (see review of a 'A Sweetheart Deal' by Ben Richards) where the term contemporary fiction indicates the early noughties and novels set in and around London.
The central character Bhupinder / Puppy is at best amoral and possibly at worst a very bad boy. Puppy is a second generation indian immigrant having grown up in Southall in a largely single parent family. The accompanying (maybe inevitable?) racism of his childhood, the struggle of his parents in making ends meet are a appropriate back-story for the langurous character Puppy is. He drifts through his life and work (journalism) capitalising on his good looks and ability to charm the opposite sex, until he meets the rich, well-connected lawyer and socialite: Sarupa. The plot pivots around Puppy's attraction / obsession for her and the contradistiction between their upbringing's, Puppy coming from the 'wrong side of the tracks' as it were.
Dhaliwal (and by proxy; Puppy) makes some striking (and controversial) observations about the social milieu of an early noughties London - but the novel is all the better for it. In summary I thought this was a terrific book (NB I finished it in a fortnight!).
The central character Bhupinder / Puppy is at best amoral and possibly at worst a very bad boy. Puppy is a second generation indian immigrant having grown up in Southall in a largely single parent family. The accompanying (maybe inevitable?) racism of his childhood, the struggle of his parents in making ends meet are a appropriate back-story for the langurous character Puppy is. He drifts through his life and work (journalism) capitalising on his good looks and ability to charm the opposite sex, until he meets the rich, well-connected lawyer and socialite: Sarupa. The plot pivots around Puppy's attraction / obsession for her and the contradistiction between their upbringing's, Puppy coming from the 'wrong side of the tracks' as it were.
Dhaliwal (and by proxy; Puppy) makes some striking (and controversial) observations about the social milieu of an early noughties London - but the novel is all the better for it. In summary I thought this was a terrific book (NB I finished it in a fortnight!).
October 30, 2024
Non ho capito perché cerca così tanto di scandalizzare il lettore con scene di sesso, volgarità, uso di droghe, omosessualità e altro. O meglio: l'ho capito, ma è un trucchetto che altri hanno già usato molto prima e molto meglio.
May 6, 2017
It was so boring I didn't even wanted to take the book in my hands. Kept on reading to find out that there's nothing exciting going on in the book any way. Waste of time.
July 1, 2018
It was a really interesting read. Not the type of book I'd usually pick, but it was worth it.
January 4, 2019
Raunchy escapism, light holiday reading, but surprisingly well written and engrossing. Real talent.
February 22, 2021
Raunchy rumblings. I loved how the writer/protagonist is vividly descriptive in his views of race, sex and class
June 15, 2021
The book just lives from the excitement when he is going to get this uber-perfect business woman laid ......
August 1, 2025
exiting book
August 15, 2012
This is a very good first effort, told from a different viewpoint to my own making for very interesting reading.
Puppy is an asian lad with not many redeeming features. He lives as a journalist but does the least amount of work, takes lots of drugs and seeps with a few women.
He lives amongst the upper middle classes, although he has no money and spends most of his time sponging of them.
The story is simple - he goes to parties, gets pissed, goes out with a super model, sleeps with an indian and then runs off with a load of cash he was meant to give to a friend of a friend who is in trouble.
Where it works is when it talks about how asians view the english - with lots of opps to talk about race, religion and sex.
Puppy is an asian lad with not many redeeming features. He lives as a journalist but does the least amount of work, takes lots of drugs and seeps with a few women.
He lives amongst the upper middle classes, although he has no money and spends most of his time sponging of them.
The story is simple - he goes to parties, gets pissed, goes out with a super model, sleeps with an indian and then runs off with a load of cash he was meant to give to a friend of a friend who is in trouble.
Where it works is when it talks about how asians view the english - with lots of opps to talk about race, religion and sex.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2009
Gotta say, I'd have to replace the featured description's use of "filthy" with "sad" and its "an incendiary cocktail that explodes" with "self-created mess that leaks all over." For all his biting - and interesting - commentary on modern Britain, race, economy, etc., Puppy has very few problems that aren't his own fault. The title evokes it - Puppy seems like a traveler in life rather than an actual participant. I don't like him, or any of his friends, or some of the list-like ways the characters "discuss" current issues, but the book is interesting and was great company on a flight from London to North America.
February 4, 2014
I agree with Burchill that this book is brilliant. It made me laugh so many times. I felt like I was with a good friend. The racial/cultural insights are refreshingly vivid. I liked being provoked. Strong writing, great plot, this book deserves more attention than it received. Similar to the writer Christos Tsiolkas, who eventually won an award with The Slap for similar racial/sexual perceptions. I hope Dhaliwal writes more. Soon.
September 9, 2007
best book i read in 2006 - sharp witted insight into a mans place in the world prom a british-asian point of view. Set in London, the author is a journalist (evening standard / guardian) known for baiting the public with faux-controversy similar to Julie Burchill - but i think his honesty is genius and admirable and his observations well made.
April 17, 2013
The book started off very interesting and to be fair the last part was also quiet intriguing however what bothered me was the boring cumbersome rambling of a loser going nowhere in life and just had a chance encounter with some rich people. That too for a short while, if you are about to start the book, ur better off picking the next book on ur shelf
May 28, 2013
It's refreshingly ladd-ish in its writing like most lad magazines and the honesty/aimlessness can be cutting but at the end of the day, it's fiction and we take away what we want to read about it of the Asian immigrant/GBLT experience. Given that it is written in the 20th century, it is wonderfully retro with its references.
June 2, 2014
É un libro particolare, molto scorrevole, che vale la pena leggere. Anche per chi non ha simpatia per le scene esplicite di sesso, dato che sono assolutamente accessorie.
Quello che mi ha colpito maggiormente é l'assoluto cinismo e l'animo assolutamente disincantato dei personaggi del libro, che nel lettore creano un fortissimo straniamento.
Quello che mi ha colpito maggiormente é l'assoluto cinismo e l'animo assolutamente disincantato dei personaggi del libro, che nel lettore creano un fortissimo straniamento.
September 1, 2009
Very readable but ultimately I didn't get that much of it. You know when you've been sitting around with your mates and you think all the funny shit you talk about and observe about your friends should be written into a book or a script? This kinda feels a bit like that.
Currently reading
July 22, 2012I ordered this book because Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal is the ex-husband of Liz Jones. Liz often wrote about supporting her ex's efforts as a writer and I wanted to see them for myself. I've had the book for a long time, and recently pulled it back out to finally finish.
March 2, 2009
Ble anbefalt denne boken, men dette ble litt for dystert og monotont etter min smak! Savnet litt mer handling!
February 5, 2010
This is a really interesting book!
Read
July 9, 2012I thing that books is always have more important to read and understand about writer and his knowledge.
April 1, 2016
An interesting read!
October 12, 2008
funny,hedonistic,loved it,loved it!can't wait for another piece of art from him..
May 5, 2012
Badly written, boring and empty
August 27, 2014
Started off well, then at some point wasn't as impressed anymore. Overall, an okay book.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews