A night in the suburbs

A lovely late summer's evening - an ice cold beer, a hunk of chocolate, and a wonderful book: Hanif Kureishi's first novel, The Buddha of Suburbia - a coming-of-age story of Karim ("an Englishman born and bred - almost") yearning to escape the South London suburbs, desperate to discover his own identity separate from those of his Asian father Haroon and his best friend Charlie Hero, and struggling, ultimately, to negotiate his way out of 1970s Britain. I can't think of a more perfect beginning to the week.

Other links today:
+ Is the US high noon over? Reflections on the declining global influence of American popular culture.
+ Spotlight on Pedro Almodóvar
+ War on fat. Is the battle against the bulge just fuelling fattism?