It is also an unwieldy work, strenuously juggling three plot lines, much like ''Sammy and Rosie'' but without a fiery apocalypse to bring them all together. Midsummer Night's Dream'' in its determination to bring lovers together, whatever their conflicts. The ''Buddha'' of the title is Haroon Amir, father of Karim, the first-person narrator. With his rebirth as a guru, he leaves his British wife, Margaret, and takes up with the aggressively arts-conscious but somewhat dilettantish Eva Kay. The ''suburbia'' of Mr. Kureishi's title is Chislehurst, Kent, vividly rendered as a place of deadly conformity.
Rebellion tends to sullen loutishness.
However many niggers there are, we don't like it. . . . Eva also has a son, the inordinately beautiful, manipulative Charles, who later markets himself as the punk rocker Charlie Hero, a second-string David Bowie, to the musically accepting Americans. During Karim's Chislehurst years, Charlie is his sexual focus. Karim's maturity can be measured by the distance he travels from Chislehurst, and the perspective he gains on Charlie. Tucked in the middle of Karim's autobiography is a small gem of a story, a grisly immigration comedy that breathes more life into the book than all of Karim's adventures in squalid Chislehurst or alluring London.