Venus

Hanif Kureishi

Faber & Faber, 2006 - Drama - 111 pages

Maurice and Ian are successful, but aging actors. The two are close friends whose conversation generally revolves around theatrical shop talk and the infirmities of other aging actors. Ian is fearful that death is right around the corner, so he agrees to let his niece's daughter, Jessie, move in to his flat to care for him. Jessie is a modern woman in her early twenties. She turns out to be a nightmare for Ian, especially since she is a hard-drinking, rude, and dismissive brat. But Maurice sees something else in the young woman, a potential for humanity which blossoms under his kindness and gentle guidance. For Maurice, something else blossoms as well--romantic love for a girl fifty years younger.

About the author

Hanif Kureishi was born and brought up in Kent. He read philosophy at King's College, London. He is the author of numerous novels, short story collections, screenplays and plays. In 1984 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. The Buddha of Suburbia won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel in 1990 and was made into a four-part drama series by the BBC. His second novel, The Black Album, was published in 1995 and his first collection of short stories,Love in a Blue Time, was published in 1997. My Son the Fanatic, a story from that collection, was adapted for film and released in 1998. Intimacy, his third novel, was published in 1998, and was adapted for film in 2001. A second collection of short stories, Midnight All Day, was published in 2000, followed in 2001 by his fourth novel Gabriel's Gift.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Venus
• Author: Hanif Kureishi
• Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2006
• Original from: the University of California
• Digitized: May 24, 2008
• ISBN: 0571235891, 9780571235896
• Length: 111 pages
• Subjects: Drama / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Performing Arts / Screenplays