“They say that when you die, you see your life pass by; however, in my case, it was not the past that I was thinking about, but rather the future – to everything that was going to be taken from me, to everything I wanted to experience”, says Hanif Kureishi in his latest book, Smashed (Christian Bourgois editor). The title, short and intense, is not insignificant. According to the Larousse, the verb comes from Italian smash and means to break something with violence and great noise. So, when someone is shattered, it is because they are torn to pieces, broken into fragments and with violence. Noise and violence.
Broken, the British writer and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi was on the 26 December 2022. He is then in Rome with his wife for the end of year celebrations. He returns from a walk when his life changes irreparably. While sipping a beer, he feels ill and falls. When he wakes up in the hospital, he learns that he is quadriplegic and has lost the use of his hands. A life shattered.
How can a writer survive without writing? Once the shock has passed, the author of The suburban Buddha, yet finds a way to overcome his helplessness : keep a diary by dictating texts to loved ones. Hanif Kureishi endeavors with rare honesty to give himself up entirely to his readers. A language of truth not devoid of humor. “I definitely want to continue writing: it has never seemed as crucial to me as it does today.”
The screenwriter of My Beautiful Laundretteof Sammy and Rosie have sex and of My son the fanatic hides nothing of the ordeal he is going through, neither his vulnerability nor the humiliations that his diminished body imposes on him. When the pain fades a little, Hanif Kureishi reconnects with art, literature and watches the series Breaking Bad… twice. “Of anything out there, the writing and intelligence of this series remains unmatched, if you ask me.” And to continue with the spin-off, Better Call Saul.
Hanif Kureishi shares his daily life and his doubts. Since the accident, he says he is “more of a patient than a writer.” “I can no longer write fiction – whether stories, films, novels – because what is happening to me is so overwhelming that I feel incapable of inhabiting other worlds.”
Is writing therapy? ? Definitely yes, reading this diary kept for a year by an immense writer who takes his approach to the end by opening up with a moving frankness. Because even if he experienced very difficult times which made him doubt his abilities to continue writing, Hanif Kureishi remains a major author who managed to bring together all the fragments, pieces, of his life to make one work of rare authenticity. To our great happiness.
Smashed, Hanif Kureishi, translation of Florence Cabaret, Christian Bourgeois editor, 306 pages, 23 euros
