Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32500 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-18
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Hanif Kureishi's latest novel made many reviewers uneasy on its first appearance, because it cuts so painfully near to the bone. If a novelist's first duty is to tell the truth, then Kureishi has done his duty with unflinching courage. Intimacy gives us the thoughts and memories of a middle-aged writer on the night before he walks out on his wife and two young sons, in favour of a younger woman. A very modern man, without political convictions or religious beliefs, he vaguely hopes to find fulfilment in sexual love. No-one is spared Kureishi's cold, penetrating gaze or lacerating pen. "She thinks she's feminist, but she's just bad- tempered," he says of his abandoned wife. A male friend advises him, "Marriage is a battle, a terrible journey, a season in hell and a reason for living."

At the heart of the novel is this terrible paradox: "You don't stop loving someone just because you hate them." Male readers will wince with recognition at the narrator's hatred of entrapment and domesticity, and his implacable urge towards freedom, escape, even loneliness. Female readers may find it a truly horrific revelation. Kureishi is only telling it like it is, in staccato sentences of pinpoint accuracy. By far the author's best yet: a brilliant, devastating work. --Christopher Hart

Synopsis
A novel by the author of "The Buddha of Suburbia" and "My Beautiful Laundrette" which analyzes the agonies and joys of being connected to another person. Jay, who is leaving his partner and their two sons, reflects on the vicissitudes of his relationship with Susan.

Customer Reviews

Honesty and integrity if not sympathy
I loved this book.I am a 40 something now happily married guy and yet can sadly recognise some if not all of the musings and conflicts of Jay, and believe many others (and not just men ) could do the same.Some reviewers have said this is an uncomfortable read ....it is...but none the less enjoyable for that.
Highly recommended to those who can take some self criticsism and be prepared to look at themselves in the mirror!!!

Poignant take on the break down of a relationship
My God ... midlife crisis and some. This novella shows the dark side of the male pysche in technicolour. Written in the first person ... it is an interesting, if introspective, polemic. The central protagonist has given little thought to what he wants from his life, family or relationship. He is a man who seems to have drifted into something without really reflecting upon the long term consequences. Well written, realistic - if not a little hopeless.

a must read
picked it up at an airport per chance 6 years ago - and since remains one of my all time favorite books. simplistically written yet powerfully insightful. each sentence is thought provoking. it demonstrates the strength and weakness of the human psyche - how easily we can adapt to any change - even if it means disconnecting from reality - yet how difficult it is for us to reconnect.

you want to hate the protagonist - yet you forgive him because he is so acutely self-aware.