Cultural Encounters: Three Stories Exploring the Colonial Legacy

by Hanif Kureishi, George Orwell, Zadie Smith

Genres: School

Paperback

Published October 19, 2020

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

[viktoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

shooting an elephant ist approved, embassy of cambodia nicht >:(

[ZsaZsa Dinter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m going to write a little rating on every short story:
Shooting an elephant : 3/5
Orwell likes to repeat himself often and make it quite philosophical, with the stories it worked out, here I felt like I haven’t read anything.
My Son the Fanatic : 3/5
In the end quite cringe but it was easy to read. Language was quite boring.
The embassy of Columbia: 3/5
I am too uneducated to understand what the meaning of the embassy of Columbia is but the language was Nice, story first really understandable later on

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shooting an elephant: 3/5
My son the fanatic: 2/5
Embassy of Cambodia: 3/5

[Laura._.22 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shooting an Elephant: 3 stars
My Son the Fanatic: 4 stars
The Embassy of Cambodia: 1,5 stars

[Luna (Taylor’s Version) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shopping an Elephant: 5/5, loved it!
My Son the Fanatic: 1/5, wtf was that story? Where is the plot? Not. An. Enjoyable. Read.
The Embassy of Cambodia: 2/5 even drier than My Son the Fanatic but not as disturbing and cringe, so I’m not mad.

[Şahsenem Elif · Rating 2 out of 5]

class read
liked the experiences of different people on immigration

[Klara]

shooting an elephant 4/5
my son the fanatic 3/5
embassy of cambodia 1.5/5

[marlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

shooting an elephant 4/5⭐️
my son the fanatic 4/5⭐️
embassy of combodia 2/5⭐️

[daana.luuisa]

read for school

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Shooting an Elephant” - ⭐️⭐️///
“My Son the Fanatic” - ⭐️⭐️⭐️//
“The Embassy of Cambodia” - ⭐️⭐️///

[anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

für die schule gelesen, nicht so schlimm

[Luise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je mehr ich gelesen habe, desto schlimmer und unverständlicher wurde es. Die Reihenfolge der Stories wäre auch mein Rating von gut zu schlecht