The latest novel by Hanif Kureishi – Somthing To Tell You – is a bit of pick’n’mix affair. It’s good in parts but far too sprawling to be entirely satisfying.
Fundamentally the theme is one close to the heart of this blogger being largely concerned with the limits and stresses of truth and honesty. The first person narrator ,an analyst called Jamal , makes this plain right from the opening line: “Secrets are my currency” and the main plot hangs on how he responds to something his lover Ajita tells him in confidence (this is a spoiler free review so I won’t say any more!).
But it is revealing that Kureishi frequently seems to forget how his main character earns his living. He is referred to more often as a writer than a shrink and we get only the sketchiest details of the patients he sees. The character’s job does however give Kureishi the opportunity to mix in anecdotes about the profession: “it wasn’t the work of analysis to make people respectable conformists but to let them be as mad as they wanted” ……..”the difference between therapy and analysis is that in therapy the therapist thinks he knows what’s good for you. In analysis you discover that for yourself“.
The novel spends a fair amount of time documenting political and social upheaval in Britain (London mainly) with a time line that takes the reader though the Thatcher years (“a fate worse than man“) pretty well up to date with i-pods and the aftermath of the 7/7 terrorist attack.
There’s plenty of mixing in smart circles, presumably a reflection of the company Kuresihi now keeps as a successful writer. There’s even a cameo appearance by Mick Jagger, described as “a man who had seen everything and understood a lot of it“.
Conversation is described by Jamal as “intercourse for the dressed” and there’s no shortage of talk about ,and practice of, sex. So much so that I have a sneaky feeling that, were it not for Kureishi’s literary bent, he’d be more than happy writing a no nonsense porn novel.
There are kinky group sessions in sleazy clubs as well as sex with hookers and strippers. Intercourse of the straight marital variety is conspicuous by its absence mainly on account of the fact that all the characters are either separated or divorced.
But despite all the libidinous high jinx and low brow humping, the sexual gratification is muted and somewhat less than entirely celebratory. At one point Jamal muses that “pornography is the junk food of love” while his best friend Henry reflects that “to know sex, you have to risk being destroyed by it“.
I think that often Kureishi spices up the plot in this way because he is afraid of being corny when it comes to affairs of the heart. This doesn’t stop him straying into cheesiness, as when he writes of Jamal’s thoughts on meeting an ex-lover:
“The moment I waited for had arrived. Soon we would be able to say everything we had yearned to say. But where to begin, and where would the talk take us?”
This is the kind of stuff that wouldn’t be out of place in Mills and Boon.
Another failing is that Kureishi too often puts inner thoughts into the form of unconvincing dialogues. One particularly gruesome example of this is when Jamal is speaking about the tube bombing:
“How can I stop thinking about the horror of those bomb-blasted trains, the ruined bodies, the cries and moans and screams, which segue, in my head at least, into the diabolical killing of civilians in Baghdad – severed heads, blood underfoot, children eviscerated, limbs blown into trees. Could only Goya grasp it? Why are we making this happen?”
This is quite a powerful and well written passage but this surely is a description of what the character is thinking rather than what he would be saying out loud. I don’t believe anyone would actually speak like this unless addressing an audience. Do you know anyone who would use the word ‘eviscerated’? (I admit I had to look it up – it means disemboweled).
All in all then, despite the socio-political observations, thoughts on moral ambiguities and sleazy underbelly ,the heart and soul of this novel is actually quite humdrum. It rests ultimately on being honest in our relationships, particularly those with ex-wives & lovers and the children involved. It is no coincidence that by far the most convincing and touching scenes are between Jamal and his young son. This where the dialogue and situations really do ring true and for these scenes alone the novel is worth reading.
