London Characters II

Karim Amir

My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost. I am often considered to be a funny kind of Englishman, a new breed as it were, having emerged from two old histories. But I don't care - Englishman I am (though not proud of it), from the South London suburbs and going somewhere. Perhaps it is the odd mixture of continents and blood, of here and there, of belonging and not, that makes me restless and easily bored. Or perhaps it was being brought up in the suburbs that did it. Anyway, why search the inner room when it's enough to say I was looking for trouble, any kind of movement, action and sexual interest I could find, because things were so gloomy, so slow and heavy in our family, I don't know why. quite frankly, it was all getting me down and I was ready for anything.
Then one day everything changed. In the morning things were one way and by bedtime another. I was seventeen.
Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia
(Filme aqui)