The Collected Stories of Hanif Kureishi was recently released in the UK, and Kureishi is showing up all over the place to promote it. This is exciting for someone who loves Kureishi, someone like me, but also really annoying—the book isn’t yet available in America and everything I read about it makes me want it more. It’s almost 700 pages and contains 8 new stories.Today, The Guardian posted a 9 minute interview with Kureishi that’s definitely worth watching. Like many, he’s concerned about the future of publishing, and how young writers are going to find their way/eat. He also discusses how becoming a writer is an important assert, as well as a way out of the suburbs. Also discussed: his relationship with his father, who also wanted to be a writer.
I found an interesting interview from Literatuar.com where Kureishi talks a little bit more about writing and form, and editing.
Here’s an excerpt:
TL: ‘My Son the Fanatic’ is a short story dealing with the same issues as The Black Album. I wondered about the form of the short story in relation to what you are saying: are they able to represent the psychology of a single character more neatly than a novel?
HK: The story – some of them are long and some of them are short. It’s not like a film. All films are between 1 ½ and 2 hours, so they’re quite formal – but a story can be any length. So it’s a more luxurious form for a writer – you start, and when the story’s finished you stop.
TL: Yes, well some of the new stories in the Collected Short Stories are very short…
HK: They were long when I started off, but then I spent the whole of my time editing: when you get to the end you think, it took me ages to do that, is that all it is?
TL: This reminds me of Raymond Carver – that kind of brutal editing – do you have an editor who will do this job for you?
HK: I wouldn’t allow it. I wouldn’t hand something over to somebody else. American editors are like writers. They really shorten the stuff. They’re co-writers, and you don’t really consider it to be your own piece in the end. I wouldn’t allow it now. I’m old enough to stand up to it. But when you’re thirty-one, and some editor’s attacking your work, it’s really hard.
TL: You do start to wonder when the book will be completely outmoded…
HK: I didn’t say that. I think the book will remain moded. I just don’t think people will want to pay for it. A bit like the newspapers: it’s outrageous that the Sunday Times wants me to pay to read it. Why would you pay? There’s no need for it. I don’t think the book is outmoded, it’s just whether people will want to pay for it. But then, it’s the case that my children rarely read books…
TL: Do you think that will change as they grow up?
HK: They think it’s really nerdy. For them it’s shameful to be seen reading a book. I do think too much importance is attributed to reading books though. But on the other hand, that’s what I’ve wasted my life doing.
TL: Do you still feel that writing is a waste of time?
HK: Well, what would you prefer to do – if I had to choose between going for a bike ride with one of my sons, having lunch in the park, sitting around gossiping, then going home – that’s what I did with them yesterday – would I rather do that or sit in my room writing a book? I’d rather be with my sons. That seems a much more valuable and spontaneous life to live. What I mean is that I think people often fetishize books and reading. A kid who reads is a ‘good’ kid, i.e. he’s not noisy; but on the other hand you’re not interacting with other people, you’re interacting with a dead text. So I have lots of questions about all of this, interesting questions.
TL: I do think that the novel has been extolled as a symbol of ‘democracy’, and something which you can learn from and which will change your life. And I don’t think that’s true to the extent at which it’s been propagated.
HK: Yeah, but if you were living in a fascist or a communist or a radical Islamic state, which most people in this world have done, then the book would represent something very important, especially in Stalinist Russia, or in Pakistan today. The book would be a very liberating thing in that context.
“…when you get to the end you think, it took me ages to do that, is that all it is?” I’ve been there. Short stories and short short stories take the same about of time and effort for me and I get so annoyed when all I have to show for my effort is 327 words.
Anyway, I’m sure the collection is great. I guess I’ll just have to wait impatiently to read it.
Anya Yurchyshyn
Anya’s writing has appeared in Esquire, Budget Travel, Noon, West Branch Wired, Ploughshares, Mod Art, Guernica and Elimae. She is a graduate ...
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