Hanif Kureishi had a fall on Boxing Day, 2022. This left him paralysed, unable to walk, write or care for himself in anyway. This memoir was completely dictated by Hanif himself, and follows the year after this accident.

The group was pretty mixed in expectations, when we approached this book. Half of the group were familiar with his previous work, including The Buddha of Suburbia and My Beautiful Launderette. Whilst the other half had never heard of any of his previous work, and were coming into this completely fresh.

Initially it seemed we were all captivated by the book’s synopsis, with its dramatic in-sighting incident and we all agreed it would be interesting to read his story from Hanif’s own perspective. So I was eager to get into this story and dive into a non-fiction, which isn’t a typical genre I would choose for myself.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and my personal scoring would be above average, giving it 3.5 stars out of five. I found it very easy to read, with short snappy chapters and a quick pace considering there was very little action and this memoir was very much focused on reflections.

I understood the premise of using the one year time period, however it felt like we were missing half the story. The ending felt abrupt, and as a reader I was still invested enough to be left wanting to know how his life changed when he finally made it home, and how it was in the present day. I don’t know if that shows great writing, leaving the reader wanting more, but personally I was just left a little frustrated.

It’s obvious from the stories Hanif tells throughout this memoir, that he is an incredibly interesting individual with many friends and a fully lived life. However, I didn’t find him a particularly likeable character. I guess this is one of the difficult parts about reviewing a personal memoir. Ultimately, this is one person’s story, told through their perspective and so it is quite possible your don’t find them particularly endearing and I don’t think that should necessarily be a critique. But I do still believe if he had included the perspectives from his girlfriend (who sounds like an absolute saint!!) and children, it would have created a better rounded story and picture of Hanif himself.

I would say the group shared a lot of these sentiments when we discussed it at our most recent meet up. Other themes that were mentioned by the group included: the NHS and how different it was to Italian healthcare, friendship and just relationships in general, and I think we all agreed the memoir didn’t go deep enough and mostly felt a bit surface level.

That isn’t to say the group didn’t enjoy this memoir!

It seems that those who listened to the audiobook, seemed to get more out of it. Although it wasn’t Hanif himself reading it, it gave you a better sense that this was a real person’s story, being told by them.

The group agreed that it was an easy read, but didn’t quite find the balance between really diving into the difficult subject matter and still keeping a well paced, engaging story.

With that, we agreed it fell somewhere in the middle and therefore the group’s average score for this book was: 3 Stars.

If you thought that score might have deterred us from selecting another memoir in the future, I think it has had the opposite effect. During the discussion there were many recommendations of memoirs that had more of an emotional impact. So we have selected another memoir for November’s read, and hopefully the group will rate this one a little higher.