Advanced Reader copy - Enjoyed this book, really opened my eyes and made me seek out other similar books to read.

A tightly-woven story with a small setting and limited characters - which makes it easy to focus on Kureishi's brilliant writing style. This novella really showcases his way with words, and although the characters were almost all unlikeable, I really enjoyed reading it.

What an experience...a thoroughly unpleasant one...being witness to the inner thoughts and perversions of such a vile geriatric misogynist. During his last days on earth film-maker Waldo schemes, manipulates and coerces those around him in order to direct his final acting scene.

Far from being utterly devastated at his imminent death or showing any sign that she would rather kill herself than be left alone upon his demise, his wife ‘unbelievably’ appears to be having a pretty enjoyable time with his friend.

He’d taken her suicide as a given, regularly fantasises about it; “I did say, ‘When I am dead I hope you find a wealthy man with an attractive penis to look after you’, while taking it for granted that when I died she would slash her wrists with a broken bottle, having first gone mad and ripped out her hair”. To enjoy the rest of her years without him, well that's unthinkable and just not going to happen.

Waldo is an intensely unlikable individual. I felt tainted, sullied and abused in being an voyeuristic accomplice to his scheming revengeful deeds. I willed him on to a speedy death in order that his wife be shot of him. Surely she deserved a happier life after suffering his vileness for so many years.

I came to detest all of the characters equally with progression of the book and with the denouement of the story felt pure cleansing relief that I could remove myself from their disgusting little cesspool world and move on.

Kureishi held me captive, voluntarily, reading about such repulsive people and their diabolical behaviour. A sick twisted little ‘ménage à trois’ and an undeniable feat of sheer brilliance that I highly recommend especially for Kureishi fans. For anyone needing to like or see any redeeming features in their characters I’d probably say this one might not be for you, but at 167 pages it’s definitely worth trying something different. I read it in one uncomfortable sitting. You may just appreciate Kureishi’s perverse and playful sense of black humour and skilful storytelling.

Most liked character: NONE
Most disliked character: ALL OF THEM

As with all of Hanif Kureishi‘s work you read his finely crafted story and when the story is finished you think wow! what happened there. This novella is no different and with his signature black comedy you are taken on a finely nuanced exploration of love, lust, helplessness and deception in a south London suburb. Waldo, a notable filmmaker, is confined by old age and ill health to his London flat. Even the villainous Eddie who is moving in on Waldo’s wife Zee is given a three dimensional character that leaves you sympathising with him.

Waldo’s looming death, which has been looming for some years now, shows no signs of being within reach. But Waldo proves that the mind can be stronger than the body. His body may be failing him but his volition has not; he has something to finish before he dies. Zee may appear as a subordinate wife but she is far from it and that is exactly what Waldo loves about her the most. They have enjoyed a good relationship and as there is no correct way to react to terminal illness we watch with astonishment, commiseration and laughter at their predicament.

The story centres around Waldo’s wife Zee and her lover Eddie. Waldo with time, patience and some cunning methods, (and Anita’s help), he pushes the story along until Zee is cognizant of her situation. The power base begins to turn and Zee starts to recognise her strengths, while Eddie starts to recognise his weaknesses. The power base shifts. Eddie and Zee begin to unearth their implicit theories and feelings about power and influence. Those which have had a profound impact on how they perceive problems and opportunities, and subsequently, how they decide upon particular courses of action.

Readers may consider some of the language lascivious but the carnal is not designed for titillation but as artifice to explore lust, helplessness and deception. Sex is used to work out the power dynamics in relationships. As Oscar Wilde said “Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.” The power dynamics in relationships are being explored. Waldo is simply the narrator of those relationship dynamics.

Consider Anita’s loneliness: There is no lascivious language in Anita’s world despite being a beautiful woman with a very successful career. Ultimately it is her beauty and success that has discriminated against her: As time ticked on and her career became ever more successful either she was too busy or men felt too intimidated to ask her out. In the extraordinary heights of distinguished careers men find their oxygen in the form of younger, less professionally driven women who will indulge their egos and care of them – be subordinate. Unfortunately, most successful men are not interested in acquiring an ambitious peer as a partner. Despite being very sociable, loving and loyal Anita find the tables increasingly turned towards men choosing younger women. Eventually she makes less effort and resigns herself to being alone until she meets the person she settles for.

Yes, on the surface Waldo is a selfish character, but then aren’t we all in some way. He proves that as he narrates his way around everybody’s lives and unpicks all their own inadequacies, failings and vulnerabilities. Maybe Waldo’s honesty about his selfishness is simply self-awareness something that must come from his impending death.

You may not agree with my analysis of this novella, but if you don’t come away thinking about the love, lust, helplessness and deception we all feel at some time in our life, then you must have read a different book to me.

‘The Nothing’ by Hanif Kureishi has the power to affect you not only because of its theme i.e. an apparently helpless, suspicious old man grappling with illness and insecurity but also because of Kureishi’s characteristic writing style which is packed with dark humour, sarcasm and even erudite crudeness.

My full review on my blog Desi Lekh - please follow link below.

'I am less impressed with death than I used to be'
Waldo the famous film-maker is dying and he is not coping very well with it after being a life-long hypochondriac. hi wife Zee seems anxious to be rid of him whilst favouring a younger, poorer suitor. Shes afraid of aging and of being unattractive if not invisible to men. The suitor needs money and status and can get it from Waldo-well he can try.
Blackly comic with bodily functions in abundance we can enjoy Waldo cheat everyone but death.

Hanif Kureishi was once reknowned for his coming of age tales. He wrote the film My Beautiful Laundrette and then one the Whitbread Prize for The Buddha of Surburbia. Now he has turned his pen towards dying.

The Nothing starts like this “One night, when I am old, sick, right out of semen, and don’t need things to get any worse, I hear the noises growing lonuder. I am sure they are making love in Zenab’s bedroom which is next to mine.”

It follows Waldo, a fêted filmmaker confined by old age and ill health to his London apartment. Luckily he met the love of his life before this and she has cared for him faithfully for the last ten years. But when Eddie starts hanging around too much – allegedly collecting material for a retrospective on Waldo’s work – he suspects them of starting an affair. He is determined to prove his suspicions correct — and then to enact his revenge.

One thing that hasn’t changed is Kureishi’s refusal to sublimate. Every kink and nuance of Waldo’s is uncompromisingly displayed … actually some of those kinks could be considered compromising, but not by a writer like Kureishi or a character like Waldo. It’s told in first person and Waldo is one of those characters who is both charismatic and a little bit creepy. He’s fairly cynical so all of the characters bad sides are shown. I have to admit I took a moment to check Kureishi’s age, after all he’s been known to be a bit biographical in the past! (He’s only 62 so Waldo definitely isn’t based on him… your guesses as to who he is based on are more than welcome 😂)

But this isn’t just a character study, it’s a twisted tale of jealousy and revenge. And it rips along at a cracking pace.

Definitely recommended – 4 Bites!

NB I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. The BookEaters always write honest reviews

This was so witty and acerbic that my tongue is still tingling with the bitterness! It tells the story of Waldo, an elderly filmmaker and his younger wife, Zee as she cares for him in his dotage while catching the eye of younger men. The writing is so observant and Kureishi seems to have pinpointed exactly what it is to grow old in all it's agonising and embarrassing glory. Waldo seethes in his bed, plotting revenge on Eddie, while Eddie plots to get the money he feels he deserves and Zee plots to get some enjoyment in her life. The intricacies of the relationships are wonderful, the prose is filthy and at just over 100 pages, this is a wonderful little slice of venom that can be devoured in a single, utterly indulgent sitting. A great book that shows we may get old, but we don't get any less naughty.

Waldo, once a celebrated film maker is now not only old but also disabled and dependent on the people around him. Zenab, his wife can hardly stand his moody and hostile character. Where did the man go for whom she left her first husband? Eddie, also into the arts and always in Waldo’s shadow, comes to their London apartment more and more often until Waldo suspects him to have an affair with Zenab. Waldo starts to survey them secretly in order to confront them with the betrayal.

I really appreciate Hanif Kureishi’s novels and I have read several of them, some over and over again, but I am a bit at a loss with his latest novel. We have a very close observation of a man who is at the end of his life and slowly seems to lose contact with reality and gets increasing hostile. He is clever in manipulating the people around him, this makes him an outstanding character who is everything but lovable and yet interesting to observe in his action and his own void he has created. In contrast, he seems to be really in love with his wife and even though his body is decaying he still has bodily needs, expressed quite openly.

I was wondering what the novel was actually about, since I am used to Kureishi giving his readers food for thought. On the one hand, Waldo explains that being attractive, desirable and charismatic paired with good looks is all that matters. When your old and disabled, nobody cares for you, not matter how successful and influential you once might have been, people immediately forget about you when you do not fit in the picture anymore. This superficiality of our society and especially in the show business definitely is something that should be seen as highly critical. On the other hand, Waldo is face with his upcoming death. Several times he downright asks the other characters to kill him so that it is finally over. He learns the hard way that “growing old isn’t for pussies” (pos. 295) and can never make his peace with his life.

All in all, full of sarcasm and cynicism – but who can resent someone’s bad behaviour when his life is not perceived as worth living anymore and finally comes to an end?

Hanif Kureishi's claustrophobic novella has echos of Hitchcock's Rear Window. The elderly filmaker and photographer Waldo grapples with losing his wife to his untrustworthy friend Eddie. Waldo 'imagines things for a living' and as he is confined to a wheelchair he uses his friend Anita and his professional skills to capture the truth of what is going on. As alway with Kurieshi the characters are flawed and imperfect and the are characterised with his masterful black humour. 'The libido, like Elvis and jealousy, never dies'.

Hmmm. This is a tricky one to review because I enjoyed reading The Nothing, but I'm not really sure what it added up to in the end.

Hanif Kureishi's short novel is narrated by Waldo, an elderly, dying, once-feted filmmaker who has had, shall we say, a colourful past. He is now bed- and wheelchair bound and begins to suspect that his younger wife is conducting an affair with an old acquaintance who takes sanctuary in their flat. How things play out is a large part of the pleasure of this book so to say more would be too much of a spoiler, but there are some darkly humorous and sometimes shocking developments as suspicion and plotting on all sides develop.

Kureishi writes brilliantly and the book is a pleasure to read. Waldo's voice is completely convincing as a self-absorbed, lubricious, often vengeful man who was plainly both an extremely talented artist and often a deeply unpleasant person to work with (…"one of my scribblers. A bastard I thrashed into talent," gives you an idea) and who is now facing his own death with something like equanimity. The prose is very readable, and scattered with neat observations, like "Drugs had given me a faux bravery but they stopped me taking risks. Every outrage has to be earned; you cannot cheat reality," and also dry humour like "After all, a saint is only someone who has been under-researched." There is a great deal of very frank talk about sex, both in the language used and what is said with it, which I found completely in character but some readers may like to be warned. It's also a tale of a lot of pretty unpleasant people doing pretty unpleasant things much of the time, but it still made enjoyable and absorbing reading.

I'm not sure whether The Nothing really says a great deal that is new or profound, but it's a brilliant character study, I found it a very good read and I can recommend it with a little caution.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

This book was not at all what I expected and I will really have to be careful with my review as to not spoil the experience for others. I think not knowing what to expect and where this will go really enhanced my reading experience.

This book focusses on Waldo, an elderly, dying film maker, and his wife Zee and how their relationship is disrupted by Eddie. Waldo becomes convinced that Zee and Eddie are having an affair and the book goes from there. I don't want to say much more because this is all you really need to know about the plot. The book mostly takes place within Waldo's appartment and this added to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the book - reminiscent of old Hollywood movies - which I thought was a really nice touch. In this way it is different to most books I have read recently and I absolutely adore this decision to tell a tightly-woven story with limited characters and settings.

Hanif Kureishi has a brilliant way with words and managed to give me whiplash with his sentences of shifting moods and word choices (I don't think I have ever seen the words Nietzschean and c*nt in the same sentence ever before - and I lived in Scotland for four years with friends who used swear words as endearments) - but I did love that juxtaposition that perfectly illustrated Waldo's difficult personality.

But even though I really enjoyed the overall reading experience, I did find every single character to be highly unpleasant. And I have not as of now decided who I liked the least. But the characters were still believable in their nastiness - even if this made it too difficult for me to root for any of them. But then again, I don't think that was the point of this book at all.

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I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Faber&Faber in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!

An intriguing tale in which Waldo finds himself towards the end of his time, but is not ready to give up on life as he has made it. His younger wife, Zee, seems to be looking to her own future without him: is it possessiveness or protectiveness that motivates him in intervening in her plans? I'm not sure why - it's a long time since I read it - but I felt there was something of Lolita in this book, although without its age issues. It makes the reader think about issues around identity and what matters in life. Is Waldo reduced to being just a dirty old man, returned to a second childhood? What of his legacy to the world of film? Has he been a voyeur in every aspect of his life? He is not very likeable, but it is easy to feel some sympathy towards him. Plenty to think about.

This was sold to me as a tense and captivating read; and it delivered.
The writing was sublime, I couldn't get enough. The story was intriguing and captivating. I really enjoyed hearing about Waldo, Zee and Eddie.
A fantastic read at a perfect length.

Like much of Kureishi's work, The Nothing immediately draws the reader into an alliance with a somewhat disreputable narrator - Waldo, the elderly film director in this case - who guides us through this narrative about the last few months of his life. Waldo is a great character in vintage Kureishi style - think of Papa in My Beautiful Launderette or Karim's Dad in The Buddha of Suburbia - someone who speaks his mind and what a mind that turns out to be! Through his first person narration we learn about his life in film, his wife Zee's relationship with the dishonourable Eddie, Waldo's own 'friendship' with the actress Anita, and catch glimpses of various family and other close friends who now form the limits of Waldo's contracted world.

Waldo is in some ways reminiscent of Jeff in Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), as he wheels himself around his apartment and stares out of the windows at life passing him by - a similarity that Kureishi nods towards in Waldo's mention of James Stewart who played the lead in that film.

Although he is both old and infirm it is difficult to really like Waldo as he reveals more about himself and the plot to relieve him of his money and maybe even his life unfolds, yet equally it is difficult to empathise with Zee, Eddie, Anita or Gibbo as we only see their actions through Waldo's own eyes or his various listening devices and cameras.

As a tale of betrayal and revenge it may be necessary to suspend belief at the way things turn out on occasion, but generally The Nothing makes for a fascinating glimpse into the creative world with its ever shifting relationships and oh so shallow loyalties.

The Nothing is a short work, but it feels a whole lot longer.

Waldo is an aging film director, famous and rich, living out his last years in London. He is unable to walk; his younger Pakistani wife Zenab (or Zee) has become his carer and the handful of visitors - famous actresses, reviewers and socialites - seem to circle with a mixture of pity and greed. Also is helpless and can only watch as they treat him as though he were already dead.

The tragedy is in Waldo's resignation to the machinations of these circling vultures. He has money, but limited time or opportunity to spend it. So why should he mind subsidizing Zee and Eddie (a film critic) on their wild nights out provided Zee comes home and makes Waldo a pot of Lapsang Souchong tea? You cant take it with you...

The drama in the piece is the inner conflict as Waldo struggles to reconcile this magnanimity with the passions that still run through his heart. He seems to recognize that his continued life is an inconvenience to those around him, but still he clings to his dignities.

This is a claustrophobic and intriguing novel - it is not totally clear to the reader where it is heading even up until the last pages. It is a bit twisty, a bit tricksy. There is a good insight into the vanities of fame and fortune; Waldo never even threatens to be likeable. There is also a really convincing portrayal of the futility of the end of a long life, just waiting for the inevitable. But if there is a criticism it is that like life, the novel gets a bit samey and dull in the middle. The tension dissipates and it doesn't really feel as though the novel is going anywhere. Even though this is a short work, it feels a bit long.

Overall, The Nothing is nicely done, the characters are delightfully grotesque and their predicament is well drawn. It does come together at the end, and that does make up for the middle.

This was my first encounter with this author, and I have to say I was very impressed. His dry humour and sarcastic views made this book a real treat. It was fast paced and I felt very anxious at some points, trying to understand what was going to be Waldo's fate.

It is also interesting that we feel for Waldo even tough if we really think about it, he is not very likable. But then again, neither are any of the other characters, and that makes the story even better. They feel real and the author touches real life problems, like aging, caring for older sick people, mental health, loneliness, in a very light way. The fact that is set in London just added to the charm.

All in all I would recommend it to all those who like a good strong story and are not afraid of crude dark humour.

I was looking forward to reading Hanif Kureishi's latest novel, but I was mildly disappointed. The crude humour is not to my taste and I may have missed the point to the story, but I believe loneliness as a reactionary behaviour seemed to be a major element to this. I had sympathy for the dying protagonist, stuck with little choices and watching his impending doom unfold, his wife's behaviour was horrifying so I found his pacifying attitude irritating. Not the best of novels for me.

Having enjoyed previous Kureishi novels, I was keen to see what this one would offer, and I wasn't disappointed. I couldn't help but smile at Waldo's plans and thoughts as he watches another man move in on his wife and into his home. The Nothing offers beautiful character portrayals and Kureishi's usual blend of humour and urban anxiety. It's a quick but fulfilling read that will satisfy fans of his works and readers looking for a short literary fiction fix.

Hanif Kureishi always makes me smile. I love his writing style, his references, his urban angst, his portrayal of love, intimacy, sexual desire and the frustration they bring. He belongs to this rare category of writers who invite the reader into a dialogue, perhaps because his characters are easily identified, they live among us, either in an over-populated multi-ethnic London or in a big city elsewhere. They face the same problems, the same happiness, even their mishaps are not unusual. They sometimes listen to the music we prefer when we’re sad or watch an old film we liked but have forgotten. This is the world of Hanif Kureishi, and if you live in a big city somewhere, a city you love and hate at the same time, if you have loved and lost and loved again, and your favourite music is rock (no hip hop, please!), then this is your world too.

His latest novel, a small gem of 173 pages, is the story of Waldo, an aged, famous film maker, now retired because of his ill health, who is confined to his London apartment under the care of his much younger wife, Zee. Waldo suspects that his wife is cheating on him, that she has an affair with a middle aged film critic, who pays a visit every day but “he is more an acquaintance, not a friend”, to quote Waldo. So, Waldo sets out to expose the illicit affair and get ready for his revenge.

All the characters are wonderfully drawn, especially Waldo, the sick old man confined to a wheel chair and trapped to his home, while his wife is neglecting him. His frustration and rage is often comical and his revenge is masterfully calculated. Zee however appears more weak, both in spirit and body, and she is easily lured into falling for a younger man. Love will blind her, but that’s what love does, so I admit that her behavior is expected under the circumstances. I wouldn’t want to reveal much about the lover, but that was a well written character with his flaws and his issues. All in all, a wonderful new book by Hanif Kureishi, don’t miss it.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Faber & Faber and Hanif Kureishi for offering a free copy in exchange for an honest review.