Hanif Kureishi, Buddha of Suburbia (extract – p. 64)
Maybe there were similarities between what was happening to Dad, with his discovery of Eastern philosophy, and Anwar's last stand. Perhaps it was the immigrant condition living itself out through them. For years they were both happy to live like Englishmen. Anwar even scoffed pork pies as long as Jeeta
5 wasn't looking. […] But once, to test this, when I offered him a smoky bacon crisp and said, as he crunched greedily into it, 'I didn't know you liked smoky bacon,' he sprinted into the bathroom and washed out his mouth with soap, screaming from his frothing lips that he would burn in hell.
Now, as they aged and seemed settled here, Anwar and Dad appeared to be
10 returning internally to India, or at least to be resisting the English here. It was puzzling: neither of them expressed any desire actually to see their origins again. 'India'; a rotten place,' Anwar grumbled. 'Why would I want to go there again? It's filthy and hot and it's a big pain-in-the-arse to get anything done.
(179)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annotations:
4 scoff – eat quickly 5 crisp – flat piece (of bacon) 6 crunch – eat food in a way that makes noise 6 greedily – with a strong desire 8 frothing – white bubbles coming out of sb’s mouth 11 origin – the place sb comes from
Assignments:
0) Read the text and plan your answers. (10’)
Understanding the text
1) In what way are Karim’s uncle Anwar and his father (Haroon) similar according to the text? (Use your own words in your answer.) (10’)
2) What does the smoky bacon incident show about Anwar’s religious feelings?
(5’)
Point of view
3) Explain what point of view Hanif Kureishi uses in his novel. Find evidence for your answer in the text. (5’)
4) How does (young) Karim’s point of view influence the way we get to know his father and his uncle? (Would his mother or his aunt Jeeta describe their husbands in a