to preface this, this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered Kureishi’s work. I got the awesome opportunity to go and see a stage adaptation of The Buddha of Suburbia directed by Emma Rice at the RSC last year, and I really enjoyed it. So I came to The Black Album with some expectation of what Kureishi’s story might be like, but no expectations about what his actual writing would be like.

It’s exceptional. His text is riddled with dark and dry humour, but not so much so that it erases the underlying messages and themes of the text itself. These continued to stand out and move the story along a very important narrative path whilst remaining engaging in other ways as well.

In a similar way to how we might describe the idea of ‘the American dream’ (whatever standing that has nowadays), Shahid finds himself moving to study in London during the ‘90s. It’s a text that draws attention to the move from youth to adulthood, and by setting this in London, it suggests the narrative of ‘finding oneself’. Kureishi does a very good job at illustrating British, but especially London, culture in this way: the '90s saw British culture, or the ‘Cool Britannia’ campaign, being dominated and steered by young people, given the welcoming of New Labour after Thatcherism and the introduction of Tony Blair as Prime Minister.

Through characters like Deedee and Brownlow, and their attempts to be active in the rave scene and drug culture, Kureishi shows youth being something that is desperately chased after. But through the protagonist, Shahid, we get to see the experience of the British youth, particularly marginalised British youth, first-hand. Shahid really plays with his identity before different people, exploring the idea of fluidity and being able to embrace several cultural identities at once without having to conform to one at the will of others.

But all in all, Kureishi is definitely an author I’d read again. I still need to get around to actually reading The Buddha of Suburbia since I enjoyed the stage adaption so much.

Shahid, rebelling against his conservative Muslim family, attends a mediocre college in London during the late 80s. Honestly, I chose this book because G Willow Wilson said it was one of her favorite books while she attending university. I find Kureishi's writing to flow well in a realistic, gritty way. His description of characters and setting brings the reader deeper into the story with every page. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is questioning our society and the treatment of others.

Disliked: The author uses (cynical) feeble caricatures to mock and write off entire belief systems (in favor of the puritan ethic, i guess?). If an author is going to make philisophical, social and economic commentary, they better know their stuff and argue it convincingly. This author does not.. The writing was alright, if a little immature, the characters were okay. There were some interesting parts about being dislocated between cultures.

3 STARS ✨

2.5/5 — The Black Album is an okay novel, but very of it’s time. Very much part of that mid-90s Trainspottingesque lifestyle. Whilst it was interesting that Kureishi matched that with Islamic Fundamentalism, I do think that, particularly since the turn of the millennium and post-9/11, there are many more contemporary novels that deal with Religious Fundamentalism in a much more nuanced fashion and in a less male-heavy hedonistic fashion.