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Lynn | 2/7/2014
" This book was a blast. It just hurtles on; it's sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. The narrator is an analyst who has the gift of encouraging people to talk to him; all messy families are not alike, in the wackiest of ways. There's lots here about communicating and not, understanding and not, concealing and not. It's by the writer of "My Beautiful Laundrette," and I'll certainly read more of his work. Lee, I think you'd like this, in particular. "
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Daniel Cunha | 2/4/2014
" Maybe its because I read the black album 10 years too late, maybe its the subject matter which is closer to my reality. But this is my Kureishi favourite. I love it for all the usual reasons - the raw, sharp wit, the contemporary subject, the characters and all their flaws and failures, with or without redepmtpion. This one left me with the good feeling that life can be as bizarre, anguishing, disconnected, and yet that all the strangeness can be oddly normal and homely. "
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Aditya | 1/31/2014
" I really enjoyed this book because i enjoyed being on the whacko journey of a psychoanalyst. One has always thought that at least a psychoanalyst would have a sorted life. So the more his life got warped the more fun i had, at his expense. :) "
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Brenda | 1/27/2014
" Took awhile for me to fully engage, but am happy that I stuck with it. Especially liked the psychologist's approach to his patients and his friends. Humans should behave in such a civilized manner but never losing the passion for living. And most of all, I loved his view that anyone who marries at 25 and is still married to the same person at 75 lacks imagination! "
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Roberta | 1/25/2014
" The book is very well written, with a couple of statements which made me think a lot. All in all a nice read for summer even though I found it a little bit too "sexy" for my taste. I'm not so interested in provocative sexual activities of other people. "
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Lesleybuck | 1/16/2014
" great peek into the making of a psychoanalyst, his life, and what guilt can do to a person. i loved reading about the dysfunctional lives of the characters and somehow ended up wanting to enter their lives, the mark of a great book. "
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Julie Price | 1/14/2014
" Smooth reflections of a jerky period in life. "
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Maruša | 1/14/2014
" I don't find it "exuberant" at all. "
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Maria H | 12/23/2013
" Read about one third but gave up. Boring stuff. Bit disappointed as enjoyed some of his others. "
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Alexandra | 12/12/2013
" I hated this. I kept at it til the bitter end and didn't enjoy it at all. I kept hoping it would pick up. It didn't. It was gratuitous. The "murder"? Resolved early on and I kept expecting something to happen but it just fell flat. I didn't care about the characters at all. What a waste of paper! "
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Annie Holmes | 11/17/2013
" He's a much better screenwriter. Flashes and sentences that spark but ... "
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Emily | 11/4/2013
" I have to admit I did not finish this. I might go back later. It explores the multiculturalism in modern England which so many people come here to escape and I CRAVE. The added perversity was a turn off for me. Maybe when i have less going on... "
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Robyn Greenwood | 9/19/2013
" Couldn't get into or finish this one, for some reason, could be because I started at the same time as the academic semester, perhaps? "
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Joe | 6/21/2013
" Clever at times but ultimately not worth the effort. "
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Laurent.michele | 5/19/2013
" good book and good story "
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Lorraine Blencoe | 5/7/2013
" I wouldn't rush to read another by this author based on this novel. It just seems so desperate to have everything crammed in and we don't get the chance to get to like the characters. "
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Carol | 1/20/2013
" maddening. a meditation or a mess? "
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Cindywho | 5/16/2012
" Sometimes I enjoyed the meanderings of Jamal, sometimes I was heartily sick of all the characters - upper middle class Londoners, name dropping and having kinky sex (not that there's anything wrong with kinky sex). Somehow, we all muddled through. "
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Ghennet | 1/7/2012
" Kureishi is very captivating here like in his 1st novel, The Buddah of Suburbia. Crazy, very enjoyable and captivating. "
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Camille | 12/29/2011
" It took me two hundred pages or so to start becoming interested in the story. The author wants to tackle so many subjects that in the end the novel suffers from the author's inability to make up his mind. I did have a nice time but this is not the kind of book I would like to read again. "
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Sonia | 9/5/2011
" Couldn't get through it. Some great moments in the writing, but the narrative was very uneven and didn't appear to have been edited at all. "
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Gail | 7/29/2011
" Very contemporary in time and urban in setting. On the gritty explicit side, but a wonderful book. Interesting cosmopolitan characters and splendid writing. "
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Smeech | 5/17/2011
" 3.5, maybe kureishi's writing is growing on me... "
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Ruth | 4/19/2011
" I loved the characterisation in this book. Jamal, Miriam and Henry all seemed like real people, flawed and recognisable. However I felt the storyline and ultimately the ending lacked something, did not quite have the strength and pace I hoped for at the beginning of the book.
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Emily | 3/9/2011
" I have to admit I did not finish this. I might go back later. It explores the multiculturalism in modern England which so many people come here to escape and I CRAVE. The added perversity was a turn off for me. Maybe when i have less going on...
"
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Rozina17 | 2/25/2011
" Awesome book. Couldn't put it down.
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Gail | 2/16/2011
" Very contemporary in time and urban in setting. On the gritty explicit side, but a wonderful book. Interesting cosmopolitan characters and splendid writing.
"
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Peg! | 10/23/2010
" Started out with a bang, but petered out, and in the end, I didn't really care what he wanted to tell us! Still, the man can write! Perhaps he doesn't have the zeitgeist in the way that he did in the 80's.
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Ghennet | 9/5/2010
" Kureishi is very captivating here like in his 1st novel, The Buddah of Suburbia. Crazy, very enjoyable and captivating.
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Sonia | 8/13/2010
" Couldn't get through it. Some great moments in the writing, but the narrative was very uneven and didn't appear to have been edited at all.
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Cecile | 7/25/2010
" finally i finished it. i think i dragged it around for a while because finishing it meant parting with friends almost. The characters in kureshi's books are always vibrant and intricate, their stories forever entangled. left me wanting for more.
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Laurie | 6/14/2010
" While I enjoy his observations, it didn't cohere for me; a bunch of people doing stuff, it didn't move me or inspire any thoughts in me.
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Rick | 3/25/2010
" Why is this book so long?! Seriously, the last 200+ pages added nothing to the plot or character development. What a disappointment!
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Manuel | 1/5/2010
" Unha viaxe ó crisol de razas londinense. Bastante divertido e inesperado por momentos.
"
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