Gabriel's Gift

I loved Gabriel’s Gift. That needs to be said first of all. I know I wasn’t that impressed by Intimacy, but Hanif Kureishi is back on form with this book. I don’t think I’ve ever, as an adult, read an author who writes teenaged characters so well. It’s true of Karim Amir in The Buddha of Suburbia and it’s certainly true of Gabriel Bunch.

Gabriel’s Gift is the story of the Bunch family; recently separated parents Christine and Rex, au pair Hannah and 15 year-old twins Gabriel and Archie. Archie did die when he was two, but he’s still pretty chatty with Gabriel. Rex is a musician who almost made it big playing with rock superstar Lester Jones years before the story begins and has never really been able to let go of his glory days as bassist for the Leather Pigs. When Gabriel and Rex visit Lester, he is intrigued by Gabriel’s artistic talent and gifts him a painting. This leads to both of Gabriel’s parents attempting to take the painting from him and sell it. There’s not much of a main drama, it’s essentially Gabriel encouraging Rex to get his shit together, while trying to get back a (forged) copy of his painting that his father sold. It doesn’t need to have any more plot than that, it’s short and it’s funny and that’s enough to make it a really enjoyable read.

Part of the reason that this book is so good is Kureishi’s skill at writing teenagers. Gabriel is easily the most likeable character in the book, which isn’t hard as his parents are useless. But he’s still clearly teenager. Sometimes, when adults try and make teens likeable, they make them too grown up- just little adults and Kureishi doesn’t do that. Gabriel is still, at times, petulant and immature. He is more than a little xenophobic towards Soviet born Hannah, referring to her home town as “Bronchitis.” Yes, his parents are far more immature- his father is a hopelessly impractical dreamer who finds it difficult to cope with his son’s talents. Gabriel’s mother is, quite frankly, a lush. So Gabriel becomes the voice of sanity while retaining his youthful tone. I know when I read The Buddha of Suburbia I compared it to the early Adrian Mole books, and this is the same. I’m so impressed at how Kureishi utterly nails it again.

The only elements of the novel that don’t seem necessary are Gabriel’s other gifts. Early in the book he seems to draw a chair which then materialises. It quickly disappears and, other than as a reason for Gabriel to lay off the weed, it is not mentioned again. It’s an interesting bit to read, but it doesn’t entirely fit in or make sense in the context of the rest of the novel. Gabriel also spends a lot of time talking to Archie. Archie does talk back, and while it’s implied that this is actually Archie, I don’t believe it. Considering the rest of the book the idea that this is just Gabriel talking to himself and wanting to hear a response is far more likely. It’s a device that simply needs more exploring to be properly intriguing. There’s also a mini-cameo by The Buddha of Suburbia protagonist Karim Amir which adds nothing and is a little jarring, but that’s only 200 or so words long, so I can forgive Kureishi that.

It’s a difficult thing to write about people who are selfish and petty and make them likeable; neither Christine nor Rex should be any fun to read about, but they are. It doesn’t matter that for most of the book they are both being terrible parents but they stay funny. Gabriel is the same. Even when he’s acting like a teenager, Kueishi makes him enjoyable to read about.

Next up is a trip to the Buddha of Buddhism in Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha.