Reviews

Black Album by Hanif Kureishi

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agnesealstrian's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

meganeorcx's review against another edition

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dark inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Pleasantly surprised by this book. Shahid floating somewhere between the fundamentalism of his Muslim friends and the liberalism of his white professor/lover was incredibly interesting and done well. The book is full of gorgeous passages, questioning religion, society, so much more. The writing did jump from one thing to another but I didn't mind as the book read easily and again, most passages were so worth it. It isn't a "fun" book, however, condemning nearly every group in society with a whole bunch of slurs attached to it. A lot of it actually helped define the characters but mostly the misogyny could have been cut in half as it more often than not felt like the writer's male gaze rather than that of the characters. That's my main critique as most of the novel was very interesting, setting and all.

Content Warnings

manoeklambregts's review against another edition

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reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

shailendraahangama17's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

m0rb's review against another edition

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challenging tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Gave an insight to the tensions surrounding Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, which was something I didn’t have much prior knowledge too. The world building was so rich in detail. However, it felt a bit choppy at times.

jmiae's review against another edition

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3.0

Unexpectedly a fascinating read. I picked this up at the annual friends of the library sale in Honolulu a year or so ago and finally got around to it. A better understanding of the historical context behind the publication of Salman Rushie's The Satanic Verses is useful, as is a general grasp of the history of post-colonial English and Pakistan. But this was published in 1995, and highlights the religious, cultural, post-colonial tensions of a pre-9/11 West as experienced through the eyes of a college student who grew up in Kent, part of a middle-class Pakistani family that runs a travel agency. The more I read of this the more I felt that (apart from some pretty graphic sex scenes) this is the kind of book that needs to be unpacked in an analytical paper for a first/second-year college course on post-colonialism. There are so many complexities to the different characters (Chad, Chili, Rudder, Strapper, Shahid) that speak to wider issues that feed directly into so many of the political and sociocultural issues that we are facing circa 2019. Of course there were a few characters that felt somewhat flat to me (weirdly, Riaz and Deedee felt somewhat two-dimensional; definitely foils for other characters, shrines to be venerated by two polarised factions).

Note to self: it was interesting, in retrospect, to read this after I read The Finkler Question earlier this year. The latter is about being Jewish in England, and was published in 2010. Perhaps not something I have the background knowledge or the headspace at the moment to do, but it would be fascinating to do comparison of the two books.