The Buddha of Suburbia

The play has a wonderful run, and Pyke tells the actors that there is an offer to take the play to New York. Karim gets an agent and a part as a taxi-driver in a television show. Karim goes to Pyke’s house to ask him for money for Terry’s socialist party. Pyke gives him a check. Next, Karim asks Eleanor for money, but she refuses him.

Karim gives Terry Pyke’s check, and Terry is impressed that Karim followed through. Karim tells Terry that he’s decided to go to New York with the play. Terry calls America a “fascist, imperialist, racist shithole,” but Karim challenges Terry’s view, touting America’s leadership roles in gay, feminist, and civil rights causes (240). Terry lets Karim know that everyone knows what Pyke did to him. Karim says that he doesn’t care.

Karim is in a reckless and emotionally fragile mood, despite the success of the play’s opening in New York. At the opening night party, Karim gathers with the other actors around Pyke; Karim is drinking heavily. Pyke skewers Karim by reading the predictions he made at the beginning of their project about who would sleep with whom, revealing that he manipulated Eleanor into a relationship with Karim.