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D'amour et de haine (LITTERATURE ETRANGERE)
L’amour et la haine ne sont pas si éloignés. Il arrive même qu’on en vienne à aimer ses bourreaux et tourmenter ceux qu’on aime.
L’interdépendance de ces deux sentiments, la porosité entre désir et destruction sont au cœur de ce recueil de nouvelles et d’essais : qu’il nous conte l’histoire d’un vol aérien qui tourne au cauchemar, la dissolution d’un couple qui se défie dans une dernière course effrénée à travers New York, ou qu’il aborde l’immigration et le racisme, l’imagination et la créativité, Hanif Kureishi nous éblouit une fois encore par sa capacité à scruter avec lucidité les contradictions au sein de la famille, de la politique ou de nos relations sentimentales. Et nous livre un recueil étonnant, où textes de fiction et essais s’enrichissent les uns au contact des autres.
L’interdépendance de ces deux sentiments, la porosité entre désir et destruction sont au cœur de ce recueil de nouvelles et d’essais : qu’il nous conte l’histoire d’un vol aérien qui tourne au cauchemar, la dissolution d’un couple qui se défie dans une dernière course effrénée à travers New York, ou qu’il aborde l’immigration et le racisme, l’imagination et la créativité, Hanif Kureishi nous éblouit une fois encore par sa capacité à scruter avec lucidité les contradictions au sein de la famille, de la politique ou de nos relations sentimentales. Et nous livre un recueil étonnant, où textes de fiction et essais s’enrichissent les uns au contact des autres.
210 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 2, 2015
25 people are currently reading
289 people want to read
About the author
Hanif Kureishi
128 books1,123 followersHanif 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.
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.
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March 28, 2024
📚 زنی که از حال رفت و سه داستان دیگر
✍ حنیف قریشی
📑 نشر افق
🌍 ترجمهی پژمان طهرانیان
🏴 ادبیات انگلستان
📁 مجموعه داستان کوتاه - ادبیات مهاجرت
دامنهی لغات جدید، یعنی زاویهی دید جدید!
اگر به مغز یاد بدیم جور دیگهای به تعاریف نگاه کنه، جور دیگهای هم فکر میکنه.
مثلا... تعریف "گناه" یدفعه ممکنه به شکل "عشق" جلوه کنه!
این کتاب مجموعهای هستش از ۴ داستان کوتاه از حنیف قریشی، که بیشتر با جستارهای مرتبط با مهاجرت میشناسیمش.
۴ داستان این کتاب:
۱. زنی که از حال رفت: ماجرای یه مَرد که وقتی از مهمونی خسته میشه، درست داخل آسانسور، یه زن جلوش از حال میره...
۲. آقای میلیونر به مهمانی شام میآید: یک زوج که موسیقی آموزش میدن و وضعیت اقتصادی خوبی ندارن، ولی متوجه میشن که یکی از هنرجوهاشون، میلیونره...
۳. ناکجا: یه مهاجر که از دست دیکتاتور کشورش فرار کرده و حالا توی کشور غریب، مجبوره برای گذروندن زندگیخونهی پولدارها رو تمیز کنه...
۴. پرواز شمارهی ۴۲۳: یه مردی که باید با پرواز هوایی به جلسهی کاری مهمی که داره برسه، البته اگر تاخیر هواپیما و اتفاقات مختلف اجازه بدن...
حنیف قریشی همیشه در همراه کردن خوانندگانش موفق عمل میکنه، معمولا داخل داستانهایی که مینویسه، مفاهیم و جملات عمیقی رو میبینید [که ممکنه بعضی اوقات هم بهنظرتون تکراری و کلیشهای بیاد!]
شاید این کتاب شگفتزدهتون نکنه، اما میتونه سرگرمتون کنه، شما رو برای چند ساعت در داستانها غرق کنه و در نهایت، فکرتون رو مشغول به خودش نگه داره: آخه کی فکرش رو میکنه که انسان متمدن، به این راحتی یه هواپیمای کامل رو به گند بکشه؟
⭐ امتیاز من به کتاب: ۴ از ۵
⭐️ امتیاز گودریدز به کتاب: ۳.۳۸ از ۵
✍ حنیف قریشی
📑 نشر افق
🌍 ترجمهی پژمان طهرانیان
🏴 ادبیات انگلستان
📁 مجموعه داستان کوتاه - ادبیات مهاجرت
دامنهی لغات جدید، یعنی زاویهی دید جدید!
اگر به مغز یاد بدیم جور دیگهای به تعاریف نگاه کنه، جور دیگهای هم فکر میکنه.
مثلا... تعریف "گناه" یدفعه ممکنه به شکل "عشق" جلوه کنه!
یه روز یه آتیش عظیم همهچی رو با خودش میبره، همهی بدیها و همهی خوبیها رو، همهی سازمانهای سیاسی رو، همهی فرهنگها و کلیساها رو. اما تا اون موقع اینها هستن.
این کتاب مجموعهای هستش از ۴ داستان کوتاه از حنیف قریشی، که بیشتر با جستارهای مرتبط با مهاجرت میشناسیمش.
۴ داستان این کتاب:
۱. زنی که از حال رفت: ماجرای یه مَرد که وقتی از مهمونی خسته میشه، درست داخل آسانسور، یه زن جلوش از حال میره...
۲. آقای میلیونر به مهمانی شام میآید: یک زوج که موسیقی آموزش میدن و وضعیت اقتصادی خوبی ندارن، ولی متوجه میشن که یکی از هنرجوهاشون، میلیونره...
۳. ناکجا: یه مهاجر که از دست دیکتاتور کشورش فرار کرده و حالا توی کشور غریب، مجبوره برای گذروندن زندگیخونهی پولدارها رو تمیز کنه...
۴. پرواز شمارهی ۴۲۳: یه مردی که باید با پرواز هوایی به جلسهی کاری مهمی که داره برسه، البته اگر تاخیر هواپیما و اتفاقات مختلف اجازه بدن...
حنیف قریشی همیشه در همراه کردن خوانندگانش موفق عمل میکنه، معمولا داخل داستانهایی که مینویسه، مفاهیم و جملات عمیقی رو میبینید [که ممکنه بعضی اوقات هم بهنظرتون تکراری و کلیشهای بیاد!]
شاید این کتاب شگفتزدهتون نکنه، اما میتونه سرگرمتون کنه، شما رو برای چند ساعت در داستانها غرق کنه و در نهایت، فکرتون رو مشغول به خودش نگه داره: آخه کی فکرش رو میکنه که انسان متمدن، به این راحتی یه هواپیمای کامل رو به گند بکشه؟
⭐ امتیاز من به کتاب: ۴ از ۵
⭐️ امتیاز گودریدز به کتاب: ۳.۳۸ از ۵
May 1, 2022
El baile de la muerte sadomasoquista, obsceno y perverso, los dos sellados en el limbo. ¿Dónde aprendes a desear?
August 17, 2025
تک تک چهار داستان این کتاب از ضعیفترین داستانهای غیرفارسیای بودن که به عمرم خوندهم. اتلاف چوب درخت بود این کتاب.
August 15, 2015
Hanif Kureishi's latest collection gathers stories and essays that have been published widely over the past few years, pieces which attempt to explore the big themes of love and hatred, and the often only barely decipherable line that separates one from the other.
Kureishi is a good writer, with a clear, honed style and a constantly questioning mind, but the essays, which work well on an individual basis, seem to lose some of their punch in this grab-bag format. The essays that feel drawn from the author's own life and experience work best. Whether sharing recollections of Enoch Powell, the late-60s bogeyman; presenting the interactions with his sons, which makes fascinating observations on the notion of growing up and growing old, the cyclical nature of generations; or offering some very considered reflections on his own father, he not only evokes an era but succeeds in challenging and engaging the reader.
But other offerings, on Kafka, Freud, Nietzsche, the joys of a Mont Blanc fountain pen, and the need for art and imagination in creative writing (“the imagination is as dangerous as dynamite” and “... following rules doesn't make anyone an artist”), while interesting enough as subject matter, seem to suffer by accumulation. Set among a shuffle of short stories and the autobiographical pieces that boast the personality of stories, their intellectualism soon feels dry, even stagnant.
Scattered throughout this hit-and-miss mix are five fictions. The best of these really shine. In 'The Door Is Shut', a middle-aged Pakistani widow, whose husband has been beheaded by the Taliban, is driven from her homeland by her monstrous son. She settles in Paris and accepts an arranged marriage, to a disconnected and self-absorbed theatre critic.
Elsewhere, 'The Land of the Old' is a disquieting first-person account of the life of a sex slave whose institutionalised existence has caused him to become reliant to his elderly, vampire-like master and mistress. Now starting to show the first signs of ageing, he faces the very real fear of being cut loose and having to face the daunting prospect of a life lived alone in a big, uncaring world.
And in the collection's terrific, tension-packed opener, 'Flight 423', a Cortazar-type story except without the sense of astonishment, Kareishi puts the reader on a packed flight with Daniel, a first-class traveller. But when the plane develops technical problems and is unable to land, the tenuous rules of society come quickly apart and a new law takes precedence among the increasingly feral passengers: survival of the fittest.
'Love + Hate' closes on an even more impressive note, with the long memoir piece, 'A Theft: My Con Man'. Penned following a life-changing moment in 2012, when he fell victim to a swindle that put him out of pocket to the tun of more than £100,000, and which for a while even cost him his identity, the author not only presents a chronological unfurling of the devastation but lays bare his emotional core, his thoughts and self-analyses during the turbulent aftermath. It's a fine finale: utter exposure that reveals a victim primed for lies, the inseparable nature of love and its opposite, the discovery of a greater sense of self and the healing powers of forgiveness, or at least acceptance.
Kureishi is a good writer, with a clear, honed style and a constantly questioning mind, but the essays, which work well on an individual basis, seem to lose some of their punch in this grab-bag format. The essays that feel drawn from the author's own life and experience work best. Whether sharing recollections of Enoch Powell, the late-60s bogeyman; presenting the interactions with his sons, which makes fascinating observations on the notion of growing up and growing old, the cyclical nature of generations; or offering some very considered reflections on his own father, he not only evokes an era but succeeds in challenging and engaging the reader.
But other offerings, on Kafka, Freud, Nietzsche, the joys of a Mont Blanc fountain pen, and the need for art and imagination in creative writing (“the imagination is as dangerous as dynamite” and “... following rules doesn't make anyone an artist”), while interesting enough as subject matter, seem to suffer by accumulation. Set among a shuffle of short stories and the autobiographical pieces that boast the personality of stories, their intellectualism soon feels dry, even stagnant.
Scattered throughout this hit-and-miss mix are five fictions. The best of these really shine. In 'The Door Is Shut', a middle-aged Pakistani widow, whose husband has been beheaded by the Taliban, is driven from her homeland by her monstrous son. She settles in Paris and accepts an arranged marriage, to a disconnected and self-absorbed theatre critic.
Elsewhere, 'The Land of the Old' is a disquieting first-person account of the life of a sex slave whose institutionalised existence has caused him to become reliant to his elderly, vampire-like master and mistress. Now starting to show the first signs of ageing, he faces the very real fear of being cut loose and having to face the daunting prospect of a life lived alone in a big, uncaring world.
And in the collection's terrific, tension-packed opener, 'Flight 423', a Cortazar-type story except without the sense of astonishment, Kareishi puts the reader on a packed flight with Daniel, a first-class traveller. But when the plane develops technical problems and is unable to land, the tenuous rules of society come quickly apart and a new law takes precedence among the increasingly feral passengers: survival of the fittest.
'Love + Hate' closes on an even more impressive note, with the long memoir piece, 'A Theft: My Con Man'. Penned following a life-changing moment in 2012, when he fell victim to a swindle that put him out of pocket to the tun of more than £100,000, and which for a while even cost him his identity, the author not only presents a chronological unfurling of the devastation but lays bare his emotional core, his thoughts and self-analyses during the turbulent aftermath. It's a fine finale: utter exposure that reveals a victim primed for lies, the inseparable nature of love and its opposite, the discovery of a greater sense of self and the healing powers of forgiveness, or at least acceptance.
November 3, 2021
Chock-full of Large Small Ideas, you can't help but close the book time and again to think of what you just read.
December 23, 2019
In his mid-fifties, he could be facing a long idleness. Many of his friends were beginning to slow down
Gazing at the rows of faces, he felt a surge of claustrophobia: hundreds of strangers forced together
Why would he worry?
Money came and went
The loved and the unloved are a different species
Daniel sat through another movie and thought of his friends having supper; he imagined their houses, their talk, their food and their ignorance of the futility he was experiencing
The world was hell itself, but most misfortunes happened to other people
These formerly anonymous people could become real, and might even begin to matter to him a little
No one cares! We have been forgotten
The measure of a civilisation was how it disposed of its excrement
Her work smile was gone
The air had become too dangerous
They weren’t able to use another airport or land in another country
The computer virus had spread
Somewhere a plane had already crashed on landing
How quickly things had deteriorated, and what a thin membrane it was that kept civilisation and hell apart
The world had somehow disappeared
I’ve collected ‘How to’ books about writing
These are boring questions, and the answers are boring
You have to think about the imagination and how it works
Conflicts demanded a creative leap into a new way of seeing. Their imaginations were transformative, a going beyond, requiring that a new thing be made out of old things
You could call depression 'a failure of the imagination'
Kafka was thinking about the emergency of his life. He couldn’t talk about it, and he couldn’t not talk about it. He couldn’t change his life
His crisis provoked a metaphor, and he wrote The Metamorphosis
Kafka found a beautiful compromise
Imagination is as dangerous as dynamite
Imagination can feel like disorder, an illumination
Word is always risky
In fantasy we tend to see the same things repeatedly – the imagination represents hope, rebirth and a new way of being
Emerson: Growth comes by shocks
We read books in order to have more ideas about life
Imagination is myriad, complex, liquid, wild and erotic
We are the creators and artists of our own lives
Let madness be our guide, but not our destination
The rules produce only obedience and mediocrity. The artist asks questions
Daily art makes and remakes the world, giving it meaning and substance
The imagination creates reality rather than imitates it
Ruthlessness was an art
Anyone who is running from something is running towards something else
Writing is an altogether different sort of thing from speaking. I wonder if it’s a protection against having to speak
Writing creates an intimate relation with a future reader
Speaking – the ability to ask for what you want, and directly to modify others – has to be a necessary form of power. There’s no use in keeping your words to yourself
In silence you rot
I had pretty much failed at school
After, I worked in offices, and didn’t fit in there either
The teenager’s life so far has been a cyclone of outrageous demands: to eat, shit, shut up and go to school; to behave well, to be obedient and polite while achieving this, that or the other; to go to sleep, wake up, take an exam, learn an instrument, listen to one parent, ignore the other, get along with one’s siblings and aunts, and so on
Both my parents had fantasies of being artists of some kind
It was all talk, the dream of a life. They couldn’t take any risks, and since they could afford to give nothing up, nothing was ever accomplished
I had to take their dreams for reality
Writing was a problem I wanted to take on
Economic productivity and materialism are the ethics of choice
He’s long dead but every day I am in conversation with him
Even parents have to grow up
But at least if you can see writing as a form of costume or masking, you can see that it can be learned. The voice, the point of view, is a put-on
The writer is a fiction, having created herself out of what she has been given
When you write, you are addressing other people; there is always someone else there, someone who sees you
Kafka grumbled, protested and rebelled, but he never revolted
Kafka liked to remain a slave, while attempting indirectly, through writing, to control the master
Writing can function as a kind of therapy by exposing the unconscious
Writing was the single creativity and freedom Kafka allowed himself
Fate is a father, and he is inescapable
The world is made of words, and he was the father of his texts, becoming his father’s father, the one with the power, telling the story as he saw it and inviting the reader to take his side
Being an artist is a way of being interested in other people without having to sleep with them
Ella Sharpe: Sublimation is in its very externalisation an acknowledgement of powers within us to both love and hate
Sometimes things get done better when you’re doing something else
Some interruptions are worth having if they create a space for something to work in the fertile unconscious. Indeed, some distractions are more than useful; they might be more like realisations, and can be as informative and multi-layered as dreams
Without obstacles, there can be no fascination. How can you desire what you already have? That’s not all: the arrangements which marriage requires to survive – security, duration, reliability, repetition
Talking cure
The unhappy are dangerous
Complete happiness is a fiction
Paris was ideal for exiles
His chosen destiny made him happy
She had been ripped from the past, and the future was comfortable but null
This country has corrupted your imagination
Milan Kundera prefers not to look up since he is thinking creatively
This door – to the West – is shut now
People can make good lives and can even be happy, despite what has happened to them and the burdens they have to bear
The migrant has no face, no status, no protection and no story
The circulation of bodies is determined by profit
Rich buy freedom
Ricky Braithwaite knows he didn’t make the difficult world in which he has arrived, but he never gives up resisting its deadness in his own way. He knows he can bring it to life through language
Appealing to the worst in people – their hate – is a guaranteed way to get attention
We are all migrants from somewhere, and if we remember that, we could all go somewhere – together
Money buys you space and peace
Gazing at the rows of faces, he felt a surge of claustrophobia: hundreds of strangers forced together
Why would he worry?
Money came and went
The loved and the unloved are a different species
Daniel sat through another movie and thought of his friends having supper; he imagined their houses, their talk, their food and their ignorance of the futility he was experiencing
The world was hell itself, but most misfortunes happened to other people
These formerly anonymous people could become real, and might even begin to matter to him a little
No one cares! We have been forgotten
The measure of a civilisation was how it disposed of its excrement
Her work smile was gone
The air had become too dangerous
They weren’t able to use another airport or land in another country
The computer virus had spread
Somewhere a plane had already crashed on landing
How quickly things had deteriorated, and what a thin membrane it was that kept civilisation and hell apart
The world had somehow disappeared
I’ve collected ‘How to’ books about writing
These are boring questions, and the answers are boring
You have to think about the imagination and how it works
Conflicts demanded a creative leap into a new way of seeing. Their imaginations were transformative, a going beyond, requiring that a new thing be made out of old things
You could call depression 'a failure of the imagination'
Kafka was thinking about the emergency of his life. He couldn’t talk about it, and he couldn’t not talk about it. He couldn’t change his life
His crisis provoked a metaphor, and he wrote The Metamorphosis
Kafka found a beautiful compromise
Imagination is as dangerous as dynamite
Imagination can feel like disorder, an illumination
Word is always risky
In fantasy we tend to see the same things repeatedly – the imagination represents hope, rebirth and a new way of being
Emerson: Growth comes by shocks
We read books in order to have more ideas about life
Imagination is myriad, complex, liquid, wild and erotic
We are the creators and artists of our own lives
Let madness be our guide, but not our destination
The rules produce only obedience and mediocrity. The artist asks questions
Daily art makes and remakes the world, giving it meaning and substance
The imagination creates reality rather than imitates it
Ruthlessness was an art
Anyone who is running from something is running towards something else
Writing is an altogether different sort of thing from speaking. I wonder if it’s a protection against having to speak
Writing creates an intimate relation with a future reader
Speaking – the ability to ask for what you want, and directly to modify others – has to be a necessary form of power. There’s no use in keeping your words to yourself
In silence you rot
I had pretty much failed at school
After, I worked in offices, and didn’t fit in there either
The teenager’s life so far has been a cyclone of outrageous demands: to eat, shit, shut up and go to school; to behave well, to be obedient and polite while achieving this, that or the other; to go to sleep, wake up, take an exam, learn an instrument, listen to one parent, ignore the other, get along with one’s siblings and aunts, and so on
Both my parents had fantasies of being artists of some kind
It was all talk, the dream of a life. They couldn’t take any risks, and since they could afford to give nothing up, nothing was ever accomplished
I had to take their dreams for reality
Writing was a problem I wanted to take on
Economic productivity and materialism are the ethics of choice
He’s long dead but every day I am in conversation with him
Even parents have to grow up
But at least if you can see writing as a form of costume or masking, you can see that it can be learned. The voice, the point of view, is a put-on
The writer is a fiction, having created herself out of what she has been given
When you write, you are addressing other people; there is always someone else there, someone who sees you
Kafka grumbled, protested and rebelled, but he never revolted
Kafka liked to remain a slave, while attempting indirectly, through writing, to control the master
Writing can function as a kind of therapy by exposing the unconscious
Writing was the single creativity and freedom Kafka allowed himself
Fate is a father, and he is inescapable
The world is made of words, and he was the father of his texts, becoming his father’s father, the one with the power, telling the story as he saw it and inviting the reader to take his side
Being an artist is a way of being interested in other people without having to sleep with them
Ella Sharpe: Sublimation is in its very externalisation an acknowledgement of powers within us to both love and hate
Sometimes things get done better when you’re doing something else
Some interruptions are worth having if they create a space for something to work in the fertile unconscious. Indeed, some distractions are more than useful; they might be more like realisations, and can be as informative and multi-layered as dreams
Without obstacles, there can be no fascination. How can you desire what you already have? That’s not all: the arrangements which marriage requires to survive – security, duration, reliability, repetition
Talking cure
The unhappy are dangerous
Complete happiness is a fiction
Paris was ideal for exiles
His chosen destiny made him happy
She had been ripped from the past, and the future was comfortable but null
This country has corrupted your imagination
Milan Kundera prefers not to look up since he is thinking creatively
This door – to the West – is shut now
People can make good lives and can even be happy, despite what has happened to them and the burdens they have to bear
The migrant has no face, no status, no protection and no story
The circulation of bodies is determined by profit
Rich buy freedom
Ricky Braithwaite knows he didn’t make the difficult world in which he has arrived, but he never gives up resisting its deadness in his own way. He knows he can bring it to life through language
Appealing to the worst in people – their hate – is a guaranteed way to get attention
We are all migrants from somewhere, and if we remember that, we could all go somewhere – together
Money buys you space and peace
September 25, 2023
"ازرا صدام کنید. مایکل یا توماس صدام کنید. ابو، ددان، احمد صدام کنید. ار، آشا، آشغال یا گه صدام کنید. هرچی یا هیچکی صدام کنید. تا همینجا هم بیشتر از اونی که بخواین اسم در اختیارتون هست که صدام کنید."
حنیف قریشی نثر گیرایی داره و پوستکنده صحبت میکنه. بهعلاوه صریح هم هست. احتمالا بازم برم سراغش.
ترجمهٔ پژمان طهرانیان هم خوب بود.
حنیف قریشی نثر گیرایی داره و پوستکنده صحبت میکنه. بهعلاوه صریح هم هست. احتمالا بازم برم سراغش.
ترجمهٔ پژمان طهرانیان هم خوب بود.
November 19, 2023
فقط داستان هواپیما جالب بود. نشون داد چه طور تمدن در یک هفته توی هواپیما بودن از بین میره
December 15, 2024
”Flight 423” was great though
September 5, 2022
El ensayo sobre Kafka es buenísimo.
March 29, 2017
This is a collection of essays by Hanif Kureishi that goes into things on his mind these days. I picked this book up in Delhi, unaware that it had been released (I read everything Kureishi writes); I am not sure it's available in the US.
He’s in his sixties now, so the book is not about "the Sixties", but _his_ sixties. The most interesting essay was the one where he talks about Enoch Powell scaring immigrants like Kureishi’s family with Powell’s xenophobic rants about immigrants in the UK, back in 1968. Shades of Donald Trump. His take is that the UK moved beyond Powell and it’s likely we will move beyond the current environment here as well.
Worth reading for the essay on race alone.
He’s in his sixties now, so the book is not about "the Sixties", but _his_ sixties. The most interesting essay was the one where he talks about Enoch Powell scaring immigrants like Kureishi’s family with Powell’s xenophobic rants about immigrants in the UK, back in 1968. Shades of Donald Trump. His take is that the UK moved beyond Powell and it’s likely we will move beyond the current environment here as well.
Worth reading for the essay on race alone.
March 12, 2017
You know the author is an asshole when he says that "most authors are male" and that Nietzsche has all the answer to the questions that no one dares to answer. That's why I didn't like his essay much. He sounded like a 40 year old sad man sitting in a basement with no purpose in life trying to sound rebellious and artistic.
Most of his short stories were interesting though. Hanif Kureishi is definitely not a bad author.
Most of his short stories were interesting though. Hanif Kureishi is definitely not a bad author.
May 4, 2022
This book is a group of essays and stories around different emotions in life. I was expecting a lot from this, but didn’t get that rhythm while reading. There are a few of the stories that are good, but rest are just like someone’s personal diary.
November 30, 2017
When the essay is solid, it's solid but other times he lost me.
November 9, 2018
Enjoyed the short stories but kinda lost in his essays
July 23, 2024
This had its moments
September 21, 2019
This is my first book of Hanif Kureishi, I had not heard of the author till I found this in Crossword bookstore and what attracted me was the title of the book itself. And after reading the book I do not agree with average rating of 3.3.
In various storiesand essays, which also includes his one of the best A theft: my con man, he examines through the relation between love and hate. Beautifully examined through the chapters is the emotion of hate. I myself consider this the strongest emotion we have. How we love someone and hate them at the same time.
The essay on Kafka , His father's excrement, he goes to examine Kafka's influence, love and hate relationships around him specially with his father, a fascinating examination of human emotions.
He also writes that how as human beings we might chant and be vocal about personal freedom but how deep down all of us have no desire to have a freedom.
Most fascinating in all the chapters is the examination of emotion of hate and as he writes in "A theft" on love, "our love and confidence would keep him afloat, as the prayers of the faithful keep God from discouragement".
In various storiesand essays, which also includes his one of the best A theft: my con man, he examines through the relation between love and hate. Beautifully examined through the chapters is the emotion of hate. I myself consider this the strongest emotion we have. How we love someone and hate them at the same time.
The essay on Kafka , His father's excrement, he goes to examine Kafka's influence, love and hate relationships around him specially with his father, a fascinating examination of human emotions.
He also writes that how as human beings we might chant and be vocal about personal freedom but how deep down all of us have no desire to have a freedom.
Most fascinating in all the chapters is the examination of emotion of hate and as he writes in "A theft" on love, "our love and confidence would keep him afloat, as the prayers of the faithful keep God from discouragement".
December 25, 2018
“What a thin membrane it was that kept civilisation and hell apart.”
It’s a collection of short stories and essays by a renowned British Pakistani writer, but to be perfectly honest I found it pretty dull (or maybe I’m just not sophisticated enough to get it), save a few stories that stood out, one of which is “Flight 423”, a story of passengers who were trapped in a flight unable to land for days and shows the worst of human nature as well as the thin line between civilisation and chaos.
Another part that I liked is his short essay on immigrants, and how in current public discourse, the immigrant “has not only migrated from one country to another, he has migrated from reality to the collective imagination, where he has been transformed into a terrible fiction.” Unless you’re a fan of his writings or an aspiring writer, it wouldn’t really be the best introduction to his work. 2.5/5.
It’s a collection of short stories and essays by a renowned British Pakistani writer, but to be perfectly honest I found it pretty dull (or maybe I’m just not sophisticated enough to get it), save a few stories that stood out, one of which is “Flight 423”, a story of passengers who were trapped in a flight unable to land for days and shows the worst of human nature as well as the thin line between civilisation and chaos.
Another part that I liked is his short essay on immigrants, and how in current public discourse, the immigrant “has not only migrated from one country to another, he has migrated from reality to the collective imagination, where he has been transformed into a terrible fiction.” Unless you’re a fan of his writings or an aspiring writer, it wouldn’t really be the best introduction to his work. 2.5/5.
September 19, 2024
Hanif Kureishi blew my mind with this piece of literature. The book opens with a wild short story that perfectly answers the question, “What would my worst and most hellish nightmare look like?”
Kureishi uses strong prose, and I enjoyed that his writing was focussed more on thought provocation and emotion than imagery or visualisation.
Additionally – and maybe this has already been commented on – I appreciated the use of fiction and nonfiction. The made-up stories blended very well with the social commentary, and Kureishi also consistently established an appropriate link (thus leading to a homogenous correlation between fiction and his reality).
If you’re looking for a strong writer, someone convincing and unafraid to explore all the depths and disturbing details of the thoughts that generally run through every man’s mind, Love + Hate is a great place to start.
Kureishi uses strong prose, and I enjoyed that his writing was focussed more on thought provocation and emotion than imagery or visualisation.
Additionally – and maybe this has already been commented on – I appreciated the use of fiction and nonfiction. The made-up stories blended very well with the social commentary, and Kureishi also consistently established an appropriate link (thus leading to a homogenous correlation between fiction and his reality).
If you’re looking for a strong writer, someone convincing and unafraid to explore all the depths and disturbing details of the thoughts that generally run through every man’s mind, Love + Hate is a great place to start.
December 10, 2021
I love Hanif's writing, from Buddha to The Body, it is consistently good and always interesting to read. This collection however, I found a little hit and miss. Mostly it is essays and I found these were more involving than the stories. It's certainly worth reading, just not his best. In fairness too, I've been reading it while tired and that doesn't help concentration.
January 13, 2022
Me ha parecido un libro interesantísimo. Mezcla ensayos y relatos, pero tengo que decir que me han gustado mucho más los ensayos, especialmente cuando hablaba de literatura, aunque es verdad que algunos de los relatos son muy sorprendentes.
September 3, 2018
Great thoughts about identity especially as an immigrant and identity intertwined with aging.
March 10, 2019
Love the stories not the essays. Can't help it. But I will definitely read his works again. What a talented writer. 👍👍👍
October 19, 2019
Terrible and jeauville. Would only appeal to idiots.
January 31, 2020
I will reread this again, for sure.
June 11, 2020
Would read again. A great introduction to Hanif Kureishi for me. Definitely going to look for more of this author's books.
February 17, 2022
Le fui pillando el gusto más a mitad de libro. Algunas conclusiones bonitas de las relaciones humanas y razonamientos interesantes de la inmigración y el racismo
July 13, 2022
3.5 💫💫💫
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August 20, 2023What i read.that make me think after every words and think about hate and love and what that cure and what muse chose.that gd write that make ma mind work twice.its chalange me.
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