Books › The Buddha of Suburbia
The Buddha of Suburbia
424 pages
A cheeky, vibrant romp through 1970s London that skewers class, race, and the messy business of growing up.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like riding the Tube through 1970s London with your smartest, most irreverent friend. The narrative crackles with a restless, youthful energy, propelled by a brisk pace and a narrator who is as charmingly flawed as he is sharply observant. It is a vibrant, chaotic immersion into a world of shifting identities, where the clash of class, race, and sexuality is handled with a wry, satirical touch rather than heavy-handed moralizing. The prose is conversational and unapologetically frank, delivering laugh-out-loud social critique alongside moments of genuine vulnerability. It will delight readers who crave messy, authentic coming-of-age stories that refuse to take themselves too seriously, offering instead a joyful, cynical, and ultimately affectionate portrait of finding one's place in a shifting cultural landscape.
- Mood
- vibrant
- chaotic
- restless
- nostalgic
- Tone
- wry
- irreverent
- satirical
- cheeky
- observant
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- cultural identity · sexual awakening · class mobility · social hypocrisy · the absurdity of performance
- The writing
- Sharp, conversational, and unapologetically frank, blending biting social critique with impeccable comic timing.
- The arc
- Moves from restless suburban frustration to a messy, cynical, yet hopeful acceptance of a complicated urban identity.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love sharp, character-driven coming-of-age stories that skewer social hypocrisy with humor and heart.
Content notes
- sexual content
- drug use
- racism and racial slurs
- homophobia
About the book
Karim lives with his Mum and Dad in a suburb of south London and dreams of making his escape to the bright lights of the big city. But his father is no ordinary Dad, he is 'the buddha of suburbia', a strange and compelling figure whose powers of meditation hold a circle of would-be mystics spellbound with the fascinations of the East.
Among his disciples is the glamorous and ambitious Eva, and when 'the buddha of suburbia' runs off with her to a crumbling flat in Barons Court, Karim's life becomes changed in ways that even he had never dreamed of...
Description from Open Library.
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