Kureishi’s sister has something to tell him

Though most of the reviews for Hanif Kureishi’s latest novel, Something To Tell You, have been encouraging, one critic he has failed to impress is his sister. Yasmin Kureishi and her brother have developed a mutual loathing over the years, and her article in Tuesday’s Independent did nothing to ease the family feud.

"It seems rather ironic that Hanif's latest book should centre on psychoanalysis," she wrote, "because I'm afraid I've always been his emotional dustbin. And now (perhaps because he doesn't speak to me) he's using the media to play out his game of bullying and intimidation. He only does "hate" with me, always has, always will; even when we were speaking, it was always there festering, like some psychotic cocktail. I'm surprised he hasn't resolved those issues around sibling rivalry with his analyst."

Yasmin Kureishi, a teacher who gave birth to twins three years ago at the age of 46, has a very specific gripe - her brother's depiction of family members in his books and films. She says that he has misrepresented their family's working-class roots for public entertainment and personal profit. It started in Kureishi’s brilliant breakthrough novel, The Buddha of Suburbia, with its thinly-veiled portrayals of his parents. It continued in My Beautiful Launderette, the 1985 Stephen Frears film starring Daniel Day-Lewis, where Kureishi’s uncle Omar was represented as an alcoholic living in a bedsit. Likewise, Yasmin recounts her brother’s girlfriend Sally re-titling his film Sammy and Rosie Get Laid as 'Hanif Gets Paid, Sally gets Exploited'.

The character that irked Yasmin the most though, was the one based on her - Paula in the 2003 film The Mother. "There was my life at the time up on screen: single parent, teacher, a son, feckless boyfriend (well, one or two, though none of them went for my mother, nor were they Daniel Craig, who played the part in the film)." She said that the experience of watching the film was excruciating: "It was like he'd swallowed some of my life, then spat it back out."

Hanif hasn't taken Yasmin’s criticism to heart. When recently asked in an interview whether he should take greater care over such matters, he sounded unflustered: "Ha ha! No. Why would I do that? And would that make any difference? My job as an artist is to be careless. No. No care."