Scouring Books: The Black Album

The Black Album
by Hanif Kureishi

Originally published in 1995, this is a book that became increasingly important yet has still not achieved its level of literary significance. Kureishi dove into the curious world of inexplicable Islamic fanaticism years before the rest of the world did. This is not a book that is against Islam by any means, nor am I as an individual, but a fundamental element of our modern world is a religion that hardly seems to want to be a part of it, not as ascetics, but as people (at least at the fundamentalist level) violently reject those who don't embrace their values. The so-called Arab Spring we've experienced this year may actually be remedying this. One way or another, this is an important work of fiction.

Bookshelf status: unread.