Hanif Kureishi. Gabriel’s gift

Idioma original: English

Original title: Gabriel’s gift

Translation: Mauricio Bach

Year of publication: 2001

Valuation: advisable

Exposing myself to the fact that this review deserves the subtitle of regret of boomer, It will be necessary to recognize that the way of life rockas it could have been conceived in 2001, let alone in 1973, now seems outdated and outdated. Despite the strenuous efforts to keep its spirit alive (if only that), the attitude towards life, seen as an influence of the phenomenon, is in an absolute decline and inextricably linked to some generations that have already begun to lose influence in global domination. Time has been a mess, of course, but also customs and, in general, the way of life that is no longer Western but global, the urgency, the entertainment offer, the loss of Anglocentric influence, the different ambitions, everything has evolved so that the stereotype, somewhat naive and romantic, has become outdated. Of course, the voracity of capitalism when it comes to assimilating and engulfing what can be exploited within controlled limits. I think I have already mentioned on some occasion this obvious trivialization through Ramones, Nirvana, and Guns’n’Roses t-shirts. Admiration for a musical style reduced to a post-adolescence phase.

Gabriel’s gift It is a novel whose background is already this scene in decline. Gabriel is the son of a couple of old glories, a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker while living with his mother, surrounded by untrustworthy men who come and go, separated from his father, an unemployed rock bassist after an accident on stage, but who retains, despite his clear role as a second-in-command, contacts with the best of the world. star system. Like Lester Jones, an obvious clone of David Bowie or Marc Bolan, he is a high-level glory who gives Gabriel a drawing of his, during a visit he makes with his father. For the couple in disarray, knowing about that gift represents a chance to get some money, and the pathetic struggle to get hold of the drawing and be able to sell it as an obvious collector’s fetish launches them into an unexpected race to gain the minor’s attention. , who accumulates not only his own problems, but also some curious situation: he communicates with his deceased twin brother.

Kureishi struggles with a somewhat forced approach whose route is defined too soon, so its resolution is not exactly the objective of the book. As a testimony of that generation to which nihilism or excesses seem to represent a justification for an entire life journey, it must be said that Gabriel’s gift It accuses the passage of time and places us in a universe of mythomania and worship of a lifestyle that seems extemporaneous to us today. Even from a psychological novel alibi (the image of the deceased brother can only be explained like this), the hypothetical generation gap where the son seems the most mature in the family triangle does not quite convince me. In any case, reading it gives off a certain slightly nostalgic warmth that I cannot feel repulsed by. The world is simply not like that anymore.