Swing Time is a long read from Zadie Smith, about who we are and who we were and who we will be. The story is told out of linear time, and involves many flashbacks and continuing changes in the more recent past, building towards the final act, which also opens the book. It’s a little confusing, but it’s interesting to see how the narrator looks back over her own life and how her feelings change about her own reminiscing. There’s a feeling that her character […]
Zadie Smith’s new novel is well worth the read.
Anyone who’s read a steady diet of literary fiction and award winners will have heard the name Zadie Smith. She shot to fame in her early twenties with White Teeth, which is surely one of the most impactful books of the 21st century written. Ever. Her follow-up, The Autograph Man, was interesting but unmemorable (I remember liking it, but not enough to keep it on the shelves, and I can only tell you that it involves male friendship, a friend’s dad, and boxing? I think?). […]
On Genius
I am very grateful to Cannonballer Mathildehoeg for sending me On Beauty as part of the holiday book exchange. I’ve been wanting to read more of Zadie Smith’s work since reviewing White Teeth a couple of Cannonballs ago. Everything about Smith’s work is so superbly done, so sublime, that I feel ridiculous trying to review it. I’m no writer and have no aspirations to be a writer; I am a grateful reader who simply doesn’t have the words or facility of expression to do justice […]