Something to Tell You: A Novel
by Hanif Kureishi
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hanif KureishiEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-08-19
ISBN: 1416572104
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Scribner
Book Reviews of Something to Tell You: A Novel
Book Review: "Alas to the surprise of many, psychoanalysis doesn't people behave better, nor does it make them morally good."
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
As a fan of Hanif Kureishi, I was delighted to see that he had written a new novel, Something to Tell You. While I often don't particularly like the characters Kureishi creates (I would find their lives too messy to deal with in 'real life'), they are always the sort of people I want to read about--bright, interesting, entertaining and troubled. And in Something to Tell You, once again, Kureishi delivers a wonderful tale with his usual worldly wisdom. If you enjoyed The Buddha of Suburbia, then chances are you will enjoy the marvelous Something To Tell You, for in some ways these two novels complement each other.
The narrator of Something to Tell You is Jamal Kahn a London-based, middle-aged Anglo-Indian psychoanalyst. Divorced and with a busy practice, Jamal spends his days listening to his patients' many problems, and even Jamal's relatives, friends and acquaintances feel free to bend Jamal's ear at any time of the day or night. Jamal, who spends his life listening to others, tells his story to the reader, reaching back into his past while exploring the nature of desire, guilt, and loss. Kureishi's characters are mainly middle-aged Londoners, coming to terms with aging and death, juggling those realities against the time left. While the renewal of desire and desirability is a huge issue for some of the characters, Jamal struggles with the ghosts of his past and long cherished dreams of what could have been.
Jamal's life is full of colourful characters--Jamal's mother has "discharged her duty and gone AWOL," and Jamal's exotic sister, Miriam and her lover, theater and film director Henry embark on an odyssey of the London sex club scene, much to the dismay of Henry's daughter. The fact that Henry is also Jamal's best friend complicates matters even further, and Jamal is expected to 'save' Henry from Miriam's corrupting clutches. But Jamal has problems of his own. His ex-wife Josephine and son, Rafi are steadily moving out of Jamal's life into new lives of their own. When the novel begins, Jamal's life is fairly sterile and uncomplicated, but as the story develops, he becomes increasingly mired in the relationships of his family and friends. Plus Jamal's past--incidents he'd much rather leave buried--float to the surface and cannot be avoided.
I loved this novel. Kureishi's amazing insight into human relationships seeps through on every page, and he's an experienced enough author to veer away from the trap of making the therapist/narrator the person who has all the answers. Jamal may be a therapist, but he's just as troubled as everyone else. The difference with Jamal, however, is that his problems are largely buried, so his life appears, at least on the surface, to be in control. The madness and mayhem of Miriam's chaotic household with her cabbie partner-in crime, Bushy, a dealer in contraband, is in complete contrast to Jamal's ordered existence. Jamal has a time and a place for passion, but unlike his sister, it's compartmentalized, tucked safely away from the other aspects of his life.
Kureishi's books and films (Rosie and Sammy get Laid, My Beautiful Laundrette) tend to be social commentaries of the shifting times. The Buddha of Suburbia, for example, is a stunning account of the 70s in Britain. Something to Tell You is also an account of a shifting Britain. With an unpopular war waging in Iraq, the tragedy of the London bombings of 2005, and a country run by a government running amok, Kureishi weaves in the troubled political times that contribute to his characters' sense of betrayal, loss, and confusion.
Summary of Something to Tell You: A Novel
In the early 1980s Hanif Kureishi emerged as one of the most compelling new voices in film and fiction. His movies My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and his novel The Buddha of Suburbia captivated audiences and inspired other artists. In Something to Tell You, he travels back to those days of hedonism, activism and glorious creativity. And he explores the lives of that generation now, in a very different London.
Jamal is middle-aged, though reluctant to admit it. He has an ex-wife, a son he adores, a thriving career as a psychoanalyst and vast reserves of unsatisfied desire. "Secrets are my currency," he says. "I deal in them for a living." And he has some of his own. He is haunted by Ajita, his first love, whom he hasn't seen in decades, and by an act of violence he has never confessed.
With great empathy and agility, Kureishi has created an array of unforgettable characters -- a hilarious and eccentric theater director, a covey of charming and defiant outcasts and an ebullient sister who thrives on the fringe. All wrestle with their own limits as human beings; all are plagued by the past until they find it within themselves to forgive.
Comic, wise and unfailingly tender, Something to Tell You is Kureishi's best work to date, brilliant and exhilarating.
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