But in "The Body" the hero, adrift both as a famous oldster in London cultural circles and as a beautiful youngster in the party circles of Europe, is so assimilated, so denatured, so securely removed from the lively, home-based ethnic/ethical conflicts usually driving Kureishi's fiction that his sketchy adventures form less a novel than a parable.
Both were adrift in their personal lives, but neither was looking for romance.
In their early 30s, both are adrift, not doing much of anything with their lives other than dating unavailable men.
BMC Racing's Atapuma remains in the red jersey, with Valverde 28 seconds behind and Froome a further four seconds back, while Quintana and Yates' team-mate Esteban Chaves are both 38secs adrift.
And there are, of course, the Stark girls, Arya (Maisie Williams) and Sansa (Sophie Turner), both still adrift in body and spirit.
During my visit, that uncomfortable realization led me to feel both totally adrift and oddly energized; when the whole world is your possibility, the whole world is your home.
Meanwhile, Jianguo, whose residual faith in the Communist Party and in Mao had perished on June 4th, was adrift, both politically and personally.
Roma shocked Internazionale 3-0 at San Siro on Saturday night to leave Juve and Napoli both five points adrift and, after Rafael Benítez's side narrowed the gap by beating Livorno, the Turin club followed suit despite a poor start.
You don't envy them, and while both sides have not been cut adrift, they've both played four games more than Hereford, the side immediately above them.
