Please read the whole short – story “My son the fanatic” by Hanif Kureishi and post a summary.
The earlier you post your summary, the more likely it will be that I have enough time to correct it and hand it out to you on Friday.
Just one more reminder :
Don’t forget, we will exchange our “Wichtel” – presents on Friday as well.
One more thing : If you copy and past a summary for the short – story that you have found on the internet, I will not only scold you but you will be given an extra task as well. Therefor you will please post the source at which you have found the short – story.
Thetruthlieshere 
The short-story “My son the fanatic” by Hanif Kureishy,is about a father Parvez with koranic background,who worries about his son Ali.
Parvez is a taxi driver at nights in England and first he thinks his son takes drugs,after he talkes to his friend Bettina,who knows Parvez for three years and sees him most nights,she suspected Ali is on drugs.Parvez talks to her about things,he is not able to discuss with his wife,but Bettina has not meet the boy Ali.The following days,Pervez watches every move Ali makes,but after a time he comes to the conclusion,that Ali is not on drugs,he sees Ali praying in his bedroom,five times a day.To geht clarity,Ali agrees to a meet with his father.They meet together at a reastaurant,Parvez does not know how to speak to his son,so he drinks one drink after the other,to get less nervous.While he drinks alcohol,Ali looks seriously at his father and tries to clarify him about the rules of the Korans.Pervez is confused und tells Ali about possibilities they have in England,but Ali criticizes english culture and wants his father to join the koran habits again.On their way back home,Bettina joins their taxi and tells Ali that his father loves and worries about him,but she does not get the question she expects,Ali provocates her,until she leaves the taxi.As Ali and Pervez arrive at their home,Ali straight flits in his bedroom.While Ali is praying,Pervez gets so angry about Ali’s reaction in the taxi and hits his face until it gets bloody,but there’s no fear in Ali’s eyes at all.He just asks his father,who of them is the fanatic at least.
Posted by Charlotte | 13/12/2011, 19:47The short-story ”my son the fanatic”, was written by Hanif Kureishy and published in 1994. The story is about Parvez, who emmigrated from Parkistan to Britain, and his son Ali. Parvez worries about Ali, due to changes of Ali’s behaviour.
At first Parvez doesn’t want to talk about his son with his friends, bur after he had the heart to talk to them, he comes to the conclusion, that drugs could be the reason for Ali’s behaviour. Afterwards, Parvez searches advice of a good friend, called Bettina. She sais, that Parvez has to observe his son, but in the following days, Parvez doesn’t notice anything strange, excepting that Ali grows a beard. After a few days, Parvez notices, that Ali prays five times a day. In order to talk about the happenings during the last weeks, he invites him fo a dinner. Ali is appaled about his father’s behavoiur. In his point of view, Parvez is to implicated in western civilasition and shows no respect towards the Koran, by eating pork and drinking alkohol. He also reports, that he want to give up his studies due to the fact that western Education cultivates an anti-religious attitude. After the dinner, Parvez tries to convince Ali of Brithish culture, but Ali is still angry due to his father’s disrespectfulness towards the Koran. When Ali and Parvez meet Bettina in a taxi , she tries to convince Ali of his father’s love to him. Ali reacts very angry and threatens Bettina, until she jumps out of the taxi. When Ali and Parvez are at home again, Parvez attacks his son , while he is praying, under alcoholical influences. But Ali doesn’t show, that he want to protect himself. After his father’s attacks he asks only who is the fanatic of them now.
Click to access My+Son+the+Fanatic.pdf
Posted by judith 2 | 14/12/2011, 19:47The short story “My Son the Fanatic” was written by Hanif Kureishi in the year 1994. It deals with a conflict between Parvez, a pakistani taxi driver and his son Ali who grew up in England.
At the beginning of the story the narrator explains quickly that Ali’s behavior changed somehow in the last time. He sorted out old toys, computer disks, video tapes, new books and fashionable clothes. Also he had parted from his english girlfriend and his old friends didn’t call him anymore. Parvez worries about his son, but can’t find the reason for his behavior. Due to that, he starts to drink more and more alcohol, even when he is at work. Parvez doesn’t dare to talk with other people about his problem, because he thinks they might blame him for the wrong upbringing of Ali. But one night, he does and as a reply from his friends they tell him his son would probably take drugs and they tell Parvez to watch him carefully and be strictly with him before he starts doing more serious things. Bettina, a women who lives outside the town and knows Parvez for three years, explains Parvez that he could see if Ali was taking drugs. His pupils might be dilated or he might look tired. After that night, Parvez controlles Ali’s room and also himself, but doesn’t find anything suspicious. There was no physically difference, but Parvez notices that Ali is growing a beard and that he prays now five times per day. So after a time, they went to a restaurant together and talked with each other. As his father orderes a glass of whisky, Ali tells him, that he mustn’t drink alcohol or eat pork as a man from Pakistan. Parvez has the opinion that they have to fit in the western world, but Ali thinks they still have to live strictly according to the Koran. Ali tells his father, he doesn’t want to study anymore because in his opinion, the western education cultivates an anti-religious attitude. Parvez tells this Bettina and about his feeling that he might have losed his own son and wants to tell him to move out of their house. But Bettina tells him to try to understand the boy’s point of view. In the following days Parvez trys to explain his son how he sees the situation in their life as Muslims in London. He even let himself grow a beard to please Ali. But Ali still doesn’t accept that, because his father doesn’t live with following the rules of the Koran. A few days later Parvez catches his son on the street and asks him to drive with them. Bettina sits in the car, too and starts a conversation with Ali. But as she trys to explain him, how much he means to his father, he gets very angry and offends Bettina. After that Ali wants to leave the car, but Bettina does it first. Later at home Parvez drinks again much alcohol because he is so angry with his son. After a time he runs into Ali’s room and hits him a few times until he bleeds, but he doesn’t show any kind of reaction or protection. He just asks his father: “Who is the fanatic now?”
Posted by Julie | 14/12/2011, 20:09there are a lot of summaries but the summary you posted is the best
Posted by Arif khan | 21/07/2016, 08:12In the short story ‘My son the fanatic’ by Hanif Kureishi Parez, a Pakistani who lives with his family in England tries to deal with the changing of his son Ali.
Parvez notices that the behaviour of his son Ali has changed. Ali’s room got tidier, he parted from his English girlfriend and he has no contact to his other friends any more. Parvez does not know why his son throws all his properties away. Because of Ali’s behaviour changing Parvez starts to drink whisky. He wants to talk with someone about his worries, but he does not dare to talk to his friends at the taxi office, where he works as a taxi driver because he was scared about their reaction. Before this event he has always spoken well of his son. Parvez always wanted to do well in England, so his son should have a good job and his own family.
One day Parvez can not keep his worries secret and talks to two close friends at work. He explains that he can not understand his son. Luckily, his friends show understanding. They think Ali is taking drugs and sells his possessions to buy more. So they say Parvez have to look after his son.
During Parvez’s work time, his last costumers are mainly prostitutes. One of them is Bettina. They already know each other for a long time. Parvez talks with her about their life and hopes, so also about Ali. She gives him hints for what he has to pay attention to prove that his son takes drugs. While Parvez observes his son and his behaviour, there is nothing that leads to drugs. One night Parvez comes home very late after a meeting with Bettina and he notices that his son wakes up for a reason. After some days Parvez finds out that Ali is praying five times every day. Ali’s religious side is the reason for his behaviour. But Parvez avoids all religions because he was treated in a bad way in his young ages during Koran lessons.
At next he talks to Bettina and also to his friends about his discovery. After that Parvez wants to do something with his son and talk about his life, but Ali rejects that.
The next day Parvez drives away with Bettina and tells her about his worst experience. His son has condemned him for drinking alcohol and explained that Parvez has broken many rules of the Koran. In the Islam a real muslim would give his life for war or anything else and then the reward would be in paradise. Ali wants his father to mend his life and Parvez tries to follow the wishes of his son and prays. After Ali decides to give up his work, Parvez feels like he has lost his son and wants Ali to leave home. When he tells his decision Bettina, she encourages him not to give up on his son, but support him. Thereupon Parvez tries to live with Ali peacefully. He wants Ali to understand that there are also other beliefs by telling him his philosophy. He tries to explain his son that he should enjoy the beauty of life.
One day Bettina wants to talk to Ali and she wants to explain the situation of his father, but it does not work out.
After a while when Parvez sees his son praying he starts to hit and kick him, but Ali has no fear in his eyes.
The story ends with the question of Ali, in which he makes clear that his father is the real fanatic.
Posted by Bich Thi | 14/12/2011, 20:36The short story “My son the Fanatic”, which was published 1994 by Hanif Kureishy, deals about the conflict between a father called Parvez and his son Ali. Parvez is originally from Pakistan, but today he is living with his son and his wife in London. He is working as a taxi-driver and he is really good integrated into the Western civilisation and their lifestyle. Although he is Islamistic he drinks alcohol and eats pork. Ali is also Islamistic but he was born in Britain and grews up there. The story begins that father Parvez regocnized that his son Ali changed. He thought that Ali is on drugs. So Parvez searched in Ali’s room for drugs with his friend Bettina who is a prostitut. After some time Parvez understand that Ali isn’t on drugs. He saw him praying five times a day. Then the two met in a restaurant that everything comes clear for both sides. Parvez was very nervous and doesn’t know what to say. So he decided to drink a little bit alcohol to became more relaxed. But with every time Parvez took a drink, Ali made a strange face. Ali tries to explain to his father the rules of the Koran. Parvez is still convinced that when they are living in Britain they have to accept the British style of life and their religion. After a event between Ali and Bettina in the taxi Parvez was really angry about his son. When they arrived at home Parvez hit Ali really badly. But Ali doesn’t want to protect himself. He just asked who of them is the fanatic now.
Posted by Maximilian | 14/12/2011, 20:42The short story “My son the fanatic” was written by Hanif Kureishi and was published in 1994. The story is about a boy named Ali who has changed his way of life and how this alteration has influenced his father.
Parvez , is the father of Ali. He is a taxi driver for over 20 years and although he is Moslem he breaks a lot of rules written down in the Koran. Ali was in former days a completely normal boy. He had a girlfriend, stuff that all teenagers have just like a computer and his room was quiet untidy. But one day Parvez found a conspicuous bag including video tapes and fashionable clothes. Besides Alis’ friends stopped calling him and he broke up with his relationship. Parvez couldn’t explain himself why all these things happened, because Ali’s behaviour has changeda lot and so Parvez made his way to find reasons and started to talk with his friends. They came to the conclusion that he will probably take drugs. This assumpzion made hm very desperate and he started to search help at his best friend, Bettina, a wife who knows parvez for three years. She gave Parvez the advice to check his eyes. But after a few days he comes to the resolution that Ali is completely healthy and there are no evidences why he should sell drugs and one night he saw the reason for his behaviour when he followed Ali one night from bathroom to his nursery and he saw Ali praying. Ali got more religous spending more time in mosques and observed all the rules written down in the Koran. At one evening Parvez was sitting with Ali in a restaurant. When Ali saw his father drinking alcohol he speaks to him in a way, trying to make Parvez a bad conscience. Ali would prefer it if his father would behave in the same way as he does, but Parvez doesn’t share this idea and considers whether it would be appropriate to get him out of his house. But Bettina is succesfully with convicing Parvez that thies would be the worng solution and it would be on the other side better to support his son instead of leaving him in the lurch. As a consequence Parvez tries to speak to Ali with the aim that Ali respects although other kinds and opinion about of their religion, but Parvez achieves nothing. In the end Bettina also tries to converse with Ali but in the end the conversation ends in a mess. Bettina jumps out of the car while it was even driving and Parvez didn’t talk to Ali anymore. Instead of this he hit him in his face and Ali started bleed, but rather than a contention between father and son Ali just asked who the fantatic one in the family is.
Posted by Ali | 14/12/2011, 20:48The short story “My son the Fanatic”, which was published 1994 by Hanif Kureishy, is about the conflict between a father called Parvez and his son Ali. Parvez is from Pakistan but he lives with his family in England and is very integrated in western lifestyle and works as taxidriver. Although he is islamistic he eats pork and drinks alcohol,which is forbidden for moslems. He is very proud of his son, because he write many A’s and he hopes that he will have a good job someday.He loves him even more than his wife, but after some time he recognizes that Ali throws many thing away, he bought him. Time by time the rooms gets more emptier and Alis’ friends stopped calling him and he broke up with his relationship so Parvez get suspicious. He believes that Ali is a drugdealer and talks about it with his friend Bettina, a prostitute. After coming to the conclusion that Ali is no drugdealer he sees that Ali prays five times a day. Then he tells Bettina about the worst experience. He was together with his son in a restaurent and broke many rules of the koran, what is in Ali’s oppinion very bad. He says to Parvez that he can’t come to Heaven like this. Parvez still believes that when they live in Britain they should also live like british people but Ali can’t accept this statement. Driving around with Bettina in a poor part of the town another day they suddenly see Ali and offer him to drive home. But Ali hates prostitutes and doesn’t want to get touched by her and offends her. Due to this Bettina leaves the driving car and runs away in the rain, although Parvez shouts some time she doesn’t come back. On the way home they dont say a word and as the arrive Ali goes straight up to his room. Parvez is unable to watch TV or read something so he just drowns his feeling with alcohol. Later he goes up to ALi’s room and hits im in the face very often and very hard. Ali doesnt try to defense hisself the only words he says through his splitted lips are : “So, who’s the fanatic now”.
Click to access My+Son+the+Fanatic.pdf
Posted by Jonas | 14/12/2011, 21:28Summary of “My son the fanatic” by Hanif Kureishi
“My son the fanatic” by Hanif Kureishi is a short story telling about a father and his son argueing about with what religion to live in England.
The father Parvez remarks that his son Ali throws his things away, parts from his english girlfriend or does not play his guitar any more because he thinks that there are more important things to do.
Parvez is since 30 years a taxi driver and drinks very much alcohol even when he is working. He wants to talk to somebody about the problem that he does not know what is going on with his son but he does not want to talk with his friends because he is too ashamed. But one night as he and his friend were watching a movie he cannot stand the silence any more and tells his friends about the situation who think that Ali takes drugs. In the early morning Bettina, a friend of Parvez which he knows since 3 years, gets in his taxi. With her he talks again about the problem he has and she gives tells him what signs are for people who take drugs. After checking.these signs at his son Parvez realizes that his son does not take drugs but that Ali donates his things or prays five times a day. To talk with his son detailed he wants a meeting with Ali in a restaurant. Parvez tells Bettina of the talk which he calls the “worst experience of my life”. Parvez and Ali talked there about religion and both are on different sides: Ali is strictly against the western lifestyle and believes in the Islam but Parvez loves England and its lifestyle and does not want to think about any religion. Later Parvez thinks about a solution to end this argueing between him and Ali. He wants to tell him his kind of philosophy: Live your life! But Ali does not agree because he is too convinced in his religion. One evenig as Bettina was in the taxi with Parvez they meet Ali. Ali is called by his father to sit into the car because Bettina wants to talk with him. But Ali does not like Bettina amd also does not really answer her questions. He calls her indirectly a bitch whereupon she leaves the taxi. Ali and Parvez do not speak to each other as they drive to their home and also not as they arrive. At the end of zhe story Parvez is very drunk, goes to Ali’s room where Aliis praying and hits him very badly till Ali is bleeding whereupon Ali asks hin who the fanatic now is. With this last sentence Ali makes his father clear that Parvez is the true fanatic and not himself.
Posted by Rukiye | 14/12/2011, 21:31The shortstory ‘My Son the Fanatic’ ,written by Hanif Kureishi, is about a family which has migrated from Pakistan to England. The son loves strict with the rules of the Koran what the father doesn’t like because he thinks they have to match implicate with the western civilization.
The father began to notice that his son was getting strange by the time. He descidet to talk to his friends at work. He told his friends that he was thinking that hi son takes drugs. They told him that they als noticed that something was going wrong. On his taxi drives in the evening he often hat a women in his car which already got a good friend. He was able to tell Bettina everything that was happening with him and his family. Some evening he told her about his son and about the guess that his son was taking drugs and she told him what to look at and how persons who take drugs do look like. Since then he watched every footstep of his son and noticed that he wasn’t taking drugs. He was just praying. He descidet to go with parvez to a restaurant. At the restaurant he wasn’t able to talk to his son so he drunk some whiskys and his son looked at him like was was a stranger. Then His son Ali asks him why he was drinking alcokole, becausethat is against the rules of the Koran. But Parvez thinks that they have to implicate to the western civilization to get a part of England. He also likes that he has more rights there. Ali is shocked about his drunken father and orders the bill to drive home. At home he just went on straight to his room. Some days later his father was with Bettina at the other side of the town when they see Ali. He comes to them in the cab and Ali is angry about his father that ‘such a women’ was allowed to touch him on the shoulder. Bettina gets agry and jumps out of the car. When they were at home again Ali leaves straight to his room but his father went in kicked him and then hit him in his face until the face was bloody. So the son says just cold : ‘Who’s the fanatic now?’
Posted by Katharina | 14/12/2011, 22:00The short story “My son the fanatic” written by Hanif Kureishi is about Parvez ,a londoner taxi driver who originally is from Pakistan, who tries to deal with the recent changes of his son Ali.
In the beginning Parvez notices that his son getting tidier. At first Parvez is just pleased but one day he recognizes that Ali is cutting all the contact with his former friends including his own english girlfriend and throwing away many things of his own property. Worrying about his son Parvez cannot sleedp and starts drinking whisky and realizes he needs to talk with someone about his problem. Being to ashamed Parvez even doesn’t try to talk to his companions but one day he cannot stand it anymore and talks about his problem with his friends. Fortunately they understand him and come to the conclusion that Ali is taking drugs and advise Parvez to look after his son. Additionally to that Bettina a prostitute but also his friend advises him what to do, because she seems to knwo much about drugs. Parves does as his friends say but unfortunately there is no evidence for him taking drugs although Parves observes his son really thorough. Later on they both give up on their drug theorie and one day Parves recognizes his son is praying. Wanting to disucss everything with his son they go together into a restaurant where the meeting ends in a failure where Ali tells his father that he will go to hell because he breaks so many rules of the Koran. After that and leaving his job Parves decides to make his son leave his home. When he tells that Bettina she encourages him to support his son. So therefor Parves tries to live peacefully and wants to make Ali understand that there are also other beliefs, telling his own beliefs and advise him to enjoy his life. One day Bettina wants talks to Ali wanting to improve the relation between him and his father but this does not work out. After that one day Parvez hits his son while he is praying, but Ali does not fears his father in the end asking him who of them is the fanatic.
Posted by Thien-Phuoc | 14/12/2011, 22:08