Customer Reviews
SPLIT LOYALTIES - By: Mr. T. WILKHU, 19 Sep 2007 
Kureishi has brought up a number of issues which British-Asians go through everyday. His story has a number of twists & turns which keeps the reader captivated throughout from the main character's personal struggles Kureishi revisits territory familiar from his film-script "My Beautiful Laundrette" & his debut novel "The Buddha of Suburbia". A highly relevant story on multi-culturalism & the 'state of the nation' during the Thatcher years, focusing on relations between races & the predicament of British youth. More specificallly it engages with the controversies surrounding the imposition of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie in 1989. Pre-occupied with popular culture & music, the novel takes it title from an album by Prince. Price is a key symbol within the text of the enabling potential of cultural hybridism in expanding received models of national & ethnic identity, thus challlenging the fundamentalist of metropolitan racism & 3rd world politics alike. Recommended read!
Islam-ain't-bad - By: Madly Bobbington-Blythe, 20 Sep 2006 Kureshi once again effortlessly combines dark humour with contemporary issues as he writes about being a young British Muslim growing up in the turbulent 80s. The driving force is the tension between the pull of the sensual, liberal ideals of the west, & the weight of traditional Islamic expectations. Suavely intelligent as always, Kureshi's themes have never been more relevant.
An intelligent amusing book about cultural identity - By: R. Fulton, 01 Jan 2005 
I loved this book & found it well written & pertinent to many of the issues of a multicultural society. It addresses the problems of growing up as a British Asian & the tension between traditional & liberal values. It is very relevant to these days of cultural antagonism & also very amusing & touching. I think everyone should read this book. The plot is not confusing & the story is relevant to our times.
Rushdie without prentention - By: Tigerrtje, 14 Jul 2003 
Compared to "The Buddha of suburbia", I felt "The black album" was a little overconstructed, self-conscious & the plot was maybe a bit farfetched. It lacked some of the lightness & humour which I reallly liked in "The Buddha..."
Still, this is a fine novel about identity & multiculturalism. Clever, straightforward, sparkling.
Kureishi at his most optimistic and enjoyable - By: , 29 Jun 2001 The Black Album is essentiallly a comic picaresque novel - the story of a young man in search of experience, torn between the conflicting attractions of religious idealism & sexual love. It is Kureishi at his most effortless & in many ways superior to "The Buddha of Suburbia" - much sunnier in outlook than his later work.
