Kureishi, Hanif
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1954- ) UK film director, playwright, screenwriter and author whose career began with a theatrical play, Soaking Up the Heat (performed London, 1976), but who came to general notice with a Television play, My Beautiful Laundrette (1985 BBC; 1986). One of his novels is of sf interest: the protagonist of The Body (2004) arranges to have his brain transplanted (see Identity Transfer) into the body of a younger man, and embarks upon a Rake's Progress described in parable-like terms typical of the Mainstream Writer of SF, a progress that propels him through Sex and sin and crime to a dark ending. His own body is dead, and the "Newbody" he occupies is needed for a richer client. The similarities between this tale and David Ely's Seconds (1963) are clear, through Kureishi capably creates a much more complex mise en scene. [JC]
Hanif Kureishi
born Bromley [now London]: 5 December 1954
works (highly selected)
- The Body (London: Faber and Faber, 2004) [hb/]
links
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