An interesting
subtext of the novel concerns people escaping from their backgrounds.
Charlie the
wannabe rock star escapes from affluent
suburbia, Karim escapes from his crazy father, Haroon escapes into
yoga,
buddhism and the arms of a one-breasted woman from his northern Indian,
Muslim past and even Karim's mum moves away from the
indocentric path her life has inescapably taken when Haroon is
out of the picture, escaping, perhaps into
normality.
I'd dispute the racism tag this boook is trendily labelled with - it's really much more about the comfort of the familiar and the way people react badly when confronted with the strange.