Hanif Kureishi’s THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA Part One: From Bromley to Penge
The Curiously Specific Book ClubShow Notes
For the second of our trilogy of episodes featuring books that came up from the depths of South London, we’re taking a walk with Hanif Kureishi’s 1990 masterpiece THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA. We begin in Bromley, birthplace and home of the book’s hero Karim (aka Creamy) and his father, the eponymous Buddha – and also the childhood home of none other than David Bowie, whose life weaves in and out of the plot as we head north to Beckenham, where Karim has his first sexual encounter and Bowie played his first festival. Then it’s north again, to Penge, where Karim’s ‘uncle’ keeps a store next to a library. Along the way we discuss Karim, Kureishi and Bowie’s school, how Bowie discovered music opposite where Karim discovered tea, and the South Asian experience of living in South London in the 1970s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Curiously Specific Book Club
In Part Two of our Buchan-based adventure we switch from Scotland to the Kent coast. We’re in search of the eponymous 39 steps. But first we need to locate Trafalgar House where German secret agents are hiding out. We end up at North Foreland, between the homes of a German-hating lord and a German-loving marquess. And, yes, we did find some steps! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It’s an iconic moment in British literature – John Buchan’s hero Richard Hannay running across a moor with police, secret agents and an airplane all trying to hunt him down. But is it based on any kind of reality? We head for the Scottish Lowlands to find out, taking in abandoned train lines, the site of a car crash and a very remote farmhouse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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