Hanif Kureishi's first novel, is a tour de force of comic invention, a bizarre, often hilarious, and totally original picture of the life of a young Pakistani growing up in 1970s Britain.
Karim lives with his Mum and Dad in a suburb of south London and dreams of making his escape to the bright lights of the big city. But his father is no ordinary Dad, he is 'the buddha of suburbia', a strange and compelling figure whose powers of meditation hold a circle of would-be mystics spellbound with the fascinations of the East.
Among his disciples is the glamorous and ambitious Eva, and when 'the buddha of suburbia' runs off with her to a crumbling flat in Barons Court, Karim's life becomes changed in ways that even he had never dreamed of . . .

本书通过追溯19世纪下半叶到20世纪70年代晚期一百多年来的美国教育发展历史，主要以医学、法律和工程学教育为例，剖析了文凭社会是如何形成的、对社会产生的正面和负面影响，展现了文凭异化的过程，解释了学校教育与社会分层的内在关系，进而完成了对当代资本主义教育制度的反思和批判，最后则提出了化解文凭主义弊端的办法，预测了文凭主义在未来社会中的处境。 作者针砭时弊，揭穿了关于教育的诸多神话，认为建立在教育基础之上的文凭社会是一种不合理的分层机制，建议废除文凭。在当下这个文凭社会的势力越来越强的时代，书中内容有助于我们更好地理解当前面临的诸多教育问题，积极思谋应对之策。