Peel me a Book
Let's Peel
The Buddha of Suburbia
Not quite a coming-of-age story. Not quite a family rebellion. Certainly not a spiritual awakening.
Perfect if you want to misbehave your way out of someone else's idea of who you should be.
Synopsis
“My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost.”
Karim Amir is seventeen, mixed-race, restless and thoroughly bored with suburban South London. His father has reinvented himself as a spiritual guru for an audience hungry for Eastern wisdom, while Karim dreams of escaping into the sex, music, theatre and glorious disorder of 1970s London.
But reinvention comes at a price. Between lovers, family upheavals, class pretensions and the uncomfortable business of being exoticised, Karim discovers that everyone is performing something — and nobody is particularly convincing.
Mood:
rebellious · irreverent · restless · exuberant
Tone:
cheeky · provocative · energetic · sharp
It Feels Like
Body:
The impatient electricity of being young, horny and desperate to get out of the house.
Tempo:
A restless rush of parties, arguments, seductions and sudden changes of direction.
Texture:
Worn velvet, cigarette smoke, cheap perfume and the scratch of a punk record.
A Little Taste
“I felt it would be heartbreaking to have to choose one or the other, like having to decide between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.”
The Aftertaste
You leave the suburbs with pockets full of borrowed identities, none quite fitting.
The laughter catches on something sharper: freedom can be just another performance.
And beneath the noise, the delicious possibility of becoming yourself.
Peel With a Drink
To be read with a gin and tonic in a mismatched glass, far too much lime, and ice melting faster than your good intentions.
Sharp, fizzy and a little reckless — the sort of drink that makes you feel sophisticated just before you say something spectacularly inappropriate.
Peel With a Reel
My Beautiful Laundrette (dir. Stephen Frears, 1985) — Desire, race and Thatcher's Britain collide in a mischievous romance written by Kureishi himself.
Velvet Goldmine (dir. Todd Haynes, 1998) — Glam rock, sexual rebellion and the intoxicating freedom of inventing yourself under stage lights.
Peel with a Beat
Peel me a Book
Or Try:
Paul Beatty
when identity stops asking permission and starts making trouble.
Let's Peel
The Buddha of Suburbia
Not quite a coming-of-age story. Not quite a family rebellion. Certainly not a spiritual awakening.
Perfect if you want to misbehave your way out of someone else's idea of who you should be.
Synopsis
“My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost.”
Karim Amir is seventeen, mixed-race, restless and thoroughly bored with suburban South London. His father has reinvented himself as a spiritual guru for an audience hungry for Eastern wisdom, while Karim dreams of escaping into the sex, music, theatre and glorious disorder of 1970s London.
But reinvention comes at a price. Between lovers, family upheavals, class pretensions and the uncomfortable business of being exoticised, Karim discovers that everyone is performing something — and nobody is particularly convincing.
Mood:
rebellious · irreverent · restless · exuberant
Tone:
cheeky · provocative · energetic · sharp
It Feels Like
Body:
The impatient electricity of being young, horny and desperate to get out of the house.
Tempo:
A restless rush of parties, arguments, seductions and sudden changes of direction.
Texture:
Worn velvet, cigarette smoke, cheap perfume and the scratch of a punk record.
A Little Taste
“I felt it would be heartbreaking to have to choose one or the other, like having to decide between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.”
The Aftertaste
You leave the suburbs with pockets full of borrowed identities, none quite fitting.
The laughter catches on something sharper: freedom can be just another performance.
And beneath the noise, the delicious possibility of becoming yourself.
Peel With a Drink
To be read with a gin and tonic in a mismatched glass, far too much lime, and ice melting faster than your good intentions.
Sharp, fizzy and a little reckless — the sort of drink that makes you feel sophisticated just before you say something spectacularly inappropriate.
Peel With a Reel
My Beautiful Laundrette (dir. Stephen Frears, 1985) — Desire, race and Thatcher's Britain collide in a mischievous romance written by Kureishi himself.
Velvet Goldmine (dir. Todd Haynes, 1998) — Glam rock, sexual rebellion and the intoxicating freedom of inventing yourself under stage lights.
Peel with a Beat
Peel me a Book
Next:
Not peeled