LOVE IN A BLUE TIME: SHORT STORIES
This collection of ten short stories by the author of the highly acclaimed My Beautiful Laundrette and other screenplays shares a common theme: a non-Westerner's sense of alienation from mainstream Western society. In some, the characters are Pakistani immigrants enduring subtle or overt racism in lower-class London. Most often, however, the narrator is a moderately successful writer living in London who indulges in drugs, meaningless sex, and exploitative relationships. Kureishi seems to extend his range in one story by getting inside the character of a streetwise young woman who goes to Pakistan to visit her wealthy father, yet the narrator turns out to be that same male persona manipulating the character. Even when touched by success, the characters are morally hollow and treat each other to petty cruelties and easy betrayals. These stories are sexually explicit, sometimes scatological, cynical, and very disturbing, yet they are not without considerable insight into human nature.?Reba Leiding, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, N.Y.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.