684 Kureishi, Hanif
parenthood in The Buddha of Suburbia
Hanif Kureishi’s novel, set in suburban England of
the 1970s, becomes an exploration of the role of
parenthood in forming the characters of its chief
protagonists, as well as an examination of the par-
ents themselves. The narrator of the novel, Karim
or “Creamy,” tells of struggling to find acceptance in
British society as a hybrid, born of an Indian Muslim
father, Haroon (“Harry”), and a British Christian
mother, Margaret. He intertwines his tale with that
of Jamila or “Jammie,” the daughter of his father’s
old childhood friend, Anwar, and his Pakistani
wife, “Princess” Jeeta. As a teenager, Karim becomes
aware that Haroon, by day a petty bureaucrat, is in
the evenings and weekends establishing a parallel
identity as an Oriental philosopher and spiritual
guide to suburbanites. In this secretive, subterranean
existence, Haroon becomes involved with Eva who,
seeking spiritual comfort as she recovers from breast
cancer, ends up providing sexual solace to Haroon.
When Karim accompanies his father to one of his
group meetings, he witnesses Haroon and Eva’s pas-
sionate sexual activity, and for the first time begins
to realize the extended nature of parenthood in his
life. He has himself a sexually loaded relationship
with Eva’s son Charlie, slightly older than him and
an aspiring punk rocker. When Haroon moves in
with Eva, Margaret decides to live temporarily with
her sister Jean and brother-in-law Ted. Although
his younger brother Allie sides with their mother,
Karim prefers to divide his time between Haroon
and Eva, Margaret and her relatives, and Jamila’s
parents, Anwar and Jeeta. Hence, his adolescence is
defined by at least three sets of parents, biological,
surrogate, and adopted. As he puts it, “It comforted
me that there was always somewhere less intense,
and warmer, where I could go when my own family
had me thinking of running away.”
More than comfort, Karim derives practical
advantages from revolving among these different
avatars of parenthood as he enters his adult years.
Influenced by Charlie, he decides to drop out of
college, frustrating his father’s vicarious dreams of
studying medicine. His participation in Eva’s scram-
ble up the suburban social ladder and her indirect
entry into the London social scene is rewarded when
Eva introduces him to Shadwell, who needs a new
actor to play Mowgli in an avant-garde production
of The Jungle Book. While Karim enjoys the sensa-
tion of being the center of attention, he also strug-
gles with ambiguous feelings toward Shadwell, who
becomes his surrogate father for a while, supplying
him the adult perspectives and practical guidance
that Haroon has always been incapable of providing.
Visiting his mother, Karim shares her helpless-
ness in her divorce, trying to understand her desire
to resume the humdrum but secure middle-class
existence that Ted and Jean still maintain. As a
parent, Margaret initially exhibits all the traits of
traditional, self-sacrificing mother. While Karim
resents her surrendering Haroon to Eva without
fighting for her rights as wife, he sometimes despises
her for being too accommodating of her husband’s
demands. Deriving his essential selfishness from her
as much as from Haroon, Karim fears that Marga-
ret’s “weakness and unhappiness” will infect him;
he does not realize that his own youth, his “life and
spirit could stimulate her.” Hence when she moves
back into the home she shared with Haroon, she
immediately begins to claim it as her own space. She
leaves her job at a shoe store and becomes a doctor’s
receptionist. Celebrating the preview of his debut as
an actor, Karim is surprised to see his mother dance
barefoot to the Jackson Five in a nightclub in Lon-
don’s West End: “I’d forgotten how happy she could
be . . . I’d never seen Mum dance before.” He has to
accept that parenthood for Margaret is now only one
aspect of her life.
With Anwar and Jeeta, his substitute parents,
Karim can enjoy the benefits of a traditional Indian
cultural background. Jeeta evolves from being a sub-
servient wife to becoming the dominant business
partner. However, she cannot prevent Anwar from
emotionally blackmailing Jamila into an arranged
marriage with Changez, a stranger from India.
Anwar regards parenthood as a means to achieve his
own desires. His hunger-strike, “self-inflicted frailty”
is a deliberate manipulation of his daughter into
providing him with a son-in-law and grandchildren
to help expand his Indian grocery store. Trapped
in his concepts of traditional male parenthood, he
terribly underestimates Jamila, taking her obedience
for granted: “It was as if, in some strange way, it
was beneath his dignity to take an interest in her.”