Summary
Karim’s career is taking off. The play is doing quite well, and he now has agency representation. He finally has a bit more money, which increases his sense of security and confidence. One evening, he decides to go to Pyke’s house to ask for some money for the leftist political party he has gotten involved with. Once there, Marlene is immediately all over him, which makes Karim somewhat uncomfortable. The three of them have a discussion, and Marlene finds out that Eleanor and Karim are no longer dating because Pyke has broken up the relationship. Pyke writes Karim a check for five hundred pounds, and Karim goes along on his way.
Karim then goes to Eleanor’s house to ask her for money for the political party. She refuses, explaining that the party is racist and she can’t participate in an “apartheid regime.” Karim leaves her apartment in a huff, and he goes to visit Terry. Terry is squatting in a house in Brixton with some of his friends, and Karim remarks on the neighborhood’s cutting-edge styles and alternative youth. Karim gives Terry the check, and Terry is quite surprised by Karim’s ability to secure funds for the party.
After handing over the check, Karim tells Terry that he is going to the United States to do a show with Pyke’s ensemble. He explains that he’ll be performing at an independent theater in New York. Terry criticizes Karim’s plan, telling him that the U.S. is a “fascist, imperialist, racist shithole.” This aggravates Karim, and he retaliates. He tells Terry that he is uninformed and ignorant, and he goes on to make general claims about political intellectuals, explaining that most of them have major gaps in their understanding of world affairs. Terry starts mocking Karim for allowing Pyke to steal his girlfriend. The two share a moment riddled with sexual tension before Karim leaves hurriedly.
Karim arrives in New York, and he stays with Pyke and his ensemble at the Plaza Hotel on the Upper East Side. The crew is given attention from a variety of culturally elite figures in the New York City art scene, but a part of Karim feels disgusted by the whole situation. As Karim gets more and more intoxicated throughout the evening, he longs for Eleanor and expresses his aversion to Pyke. Karim repeatedly asks his ex-girlfriend to step away from the festivities and talk with him, but she refuses, preferring to hang back to engage with Pyke. This pushes Karim to a point of extreme aggravation, and he engages Pyke in a drunken brawl. He loses awareness of his surroundings and his own body, and he lays on the hotel floor dazed and confused.
Karim is rescued from his drunken debacle by Charlie, who has since moved to New York to continue his rockstar career. When Karim wakes up the following morning, he is pleasantly surprised to see that Charlie lives in a comfortable and clean home in the East Village. The two spend the day walking around the Village, where Charlie dodges fans. Karim realizes just how famous Charlie has become in the States, and he is amused by Charlie’s adoption of a cockney accent. Karim, bothered by his communal living arrangement on the Upper East Side, asks Charlie if he can crash at his place for the duration of his time in New York. Charlie says yes, and Karim decides to stay with him beyond his show run.
After six months, Karim decides that it’s time to return to London. However, Charlie pushes back on Karim’s idea. Karim explains that Charlie feels specific senses of pride and exhibitionism when Karim is around. In New York, it is only Karim that knows how far Charlie has come from his adolescence in Beckenham. Karim explains that for Charlie, he is “a full-length mirror, but a mirror that could remember.”
Two final occurrences prompt Karim to make the decision to leave New York for good. One afternoon, Karim watches Charlie turn violent on an eager journalist. Later, Karim and Charlie begin to sexually experiment with one another, and it becomes sadistic. Soon after deciding it’s time to leave, Karim receives a call from his agent telling him that he has booked an important audition in London. This news prompts Karim to finally convince Charlie to buy his return ticket. Charlie contests, and it takes a few days of negotiation, but eventually Karim is homeward bound.
Karim auditions and successfully books a recurring role on a soap opera. Although he has doubts about the quality of the content, he ultimately decides to take the job. He heads to see Haroon and Eva in order to announce his return and his new job. However, when he arrives at their residence, he finds that they are preoccupied by an editorial team covering Eva’s interior design business. Karim then visits Changez and Jamila, and he meets Jamila’s baby Leila. It is revealed that Jamila is having relationships with women, and Changez grows very jealous. Karim visits Haroon once more, and he finds that he has quit his job and has started his guru business once again. Karim decides to take Haroon, Eva, Changez, Jamila, Allie, and his brother’s girlfriend to dinner to celebrate his new job. While there, Haroon and Eva announce their plan to wed. Karim is drunk and happy, and he reflects upon his relationships with everyone at the table and realizes that he is surrounded by love.
Analysis
In the first part of this section, the reader understands how Karim continues to navigate issues of social hierarchy and class in London. At the beginning of the novel, Karim sees moving to the city as his opportunity to network with the city’s elite. He has a somewhat narrow perspective on class––suburban communities signify lower class, while urban communities represent wealth. In his adolescence, Karim understands that moving to London is his only hope for social mobility and his only chance to carve out a path of success for himself. When he moves to London, however, his understanding of class grows more nuanced. He realizes that urban environments are not just circles of the elite. Additionally, he realizes that there are different subcultures of those with financial privilege.
Throughout Karim’s relationship with Eleanor, he sees how she and her social circle move about the world with an air of indifference. Due to Karim’s personal experience as a middle-class, mixed-race person from the suburbs, he recognizes that this indifference is rooted in privilege. Ultimately, he finds that the bohemian elite are flippant about a variety of matters because they are secure in their whiteness and their wealth. Karim begins to find fault in this flippancy, which is evidenced by the manner in which he asks both Pyke and Eleanor for money to redistribute to their political campaign. He also acts against on Terry, and he tells him that he finds his political opinions hollow.
When Karim goes to New York, we see how his inner turmoil surrounding his position in British society plays out on an international stage. He feels strange belonging to a “band of Brits” abroad, and he is once again reminded of his in-betweenness. At this point in the novel, Karim has accomplished what he always wanted. Eva’s move to the city catapulted him into artistic circles, and Karim now has a variety of opportunities to make art, earn a living, and travel. However, his narration during the party at the Plaza Hotel demonstrates a growing sense of disillusionment with his work, his peers, and the artist’s lifestyle.
When Karim and Charlie reunite in New York, Karim sees a new level of Charlie’s fame. The two have a full-circle moment, since they have both reached success in their respective fields. When Karim is with Charlie, he thinks about how Charlie has capitalized upon his identity in order to create a rock persona for himself. He has changed parts of himself (such as developing a fake Cockney accent) in order to appeal to the masses, which strikes Karim as a capitalist, disingenuous, and American tactic. Although Charlie is a worldwide star, Karim sees that he is deeply unsettled, dissatisfied, and paranoid. This once again alters Karim’s views on fame and famous artists in particular.
After spending a few months with Charlie and helping him run his estate, Karim realizes that Charlie is only able to derive a semblance of self-worth when the two are together. Perhaps Charlie feels a sense of superiority when he compares himself to Karim, which can be read through a postcolonial lens. It is also possible that Karim reminds Charlie of how far he has come from his adolescent life in the suburbs. Regardless, Karim decides that his dynamic with Charlie is unhealthy and he returns to London. Once in London, Karim is able to take his family to dinner. This is a privilege he has not previously had, and it is clear to see where Karim’s journey has taken him since the novel’s beginning. As he sits around a dinner table surrounded by those that love him, Karim realizes that the past few years have been turbulent. He remains confident that things will stabilize in the future, and it is ultimately Karim’s loved ones who provide him with that sense of strength.
