Hanif Kureishi Writes Himself Anew In 'Shattered'

Hanif Kureishi Writes Himself Anew In 'Shattered'

That Joan Didion line, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live," is ubiquitous because like so much of her work, it gets at an essential truth. But the thing about that quote—the idea that we form narratives out of the things that happen to us—is that it suggests we do it in order to move forward in some way. "In order to live" implies that those stories make life easier, more understandable, maybe even conquerable. Didion is a master at als…