Reviews

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

howtobebooks's review against another edition

5.0

This is probably my favourite Zadie Smith novel, deeply touching with characters bursting to life out of the pages. Hitting on themes of racial identity and pop culture, it is a brilliant contemporary take on what young adults are currently experiencing. From cultural appropriation to the effects of globalisation all summed up in the relationship of one young woman and her peers.

Her relationship with her mother is one of generational divide while with her friend Tracy is one of class divide. The protagonist's character is the epitome of confusion and attempting to find a place in the world. Well worth all the praise.

dickiefitt's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

This book did not seem to know what it was. It was boring, basic and has no real plot. There are some interesting observations about race and class and priviledge, but other writers have done this better. All the characters are so two dimensional - I did not understand them. It's supposedly about friendship but there are barely any portrayals of real relationship. I have never read a book so lavished with praise that seemed so much like a load of words on paper. 

madscranberry's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

ilalessof's review against another edition

2.0

so rarely will i write a review. this took me months to read aimee was such a boring character she was so unconvincing and i just couldn’t understand her in any way. tracy was great and sidelined for such annoying sub plots truly this book took years of my life

winterafternoons's review against another edition

2.0

My attention wandered and wavered, meandering, while I read this book - sharp in the beginning, half-asleep during the long, dull middle, and fitfully waking back up towards the end. There were aspects of this book that I liked: the mother, the dancing, the exploration of charity and political service... but there were a lot of aspects I could have done without, and ultimately it felt like she was trying to cover too much ground, which made the whole thing feel unfocused, sloppy. Which is a shame, because if she had honed her focus - maybe entirely cut out Aimee (an empty, annoying character; a boring plot) - maybe if she had focused on just Tracey, just the mother... maybe she could have dug deeper and it would have been more worthwhile. Because I did walk away feeling... something. Something amorphous and possibly not lasting, but there was something small and powerful hidden in this book and I wish an editor had helped her draw it out and refine it. The beginning was so delightful, I was so enchanted, but she wasn't able to maintain that magic.

(Also the subplot about the dad was complete nonsense and I almost got so annoyed that I stopped reading.)

ameliedehauwere's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

justnerissa's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

***Contains a Spoiler***

Smith has clearly honed her craft when it comes to character. Maybe Swing Time was an attempt at doing something different with plot. I found it frustrating that the narrator is slightly obsessed with her childhood friend Tracey, yet we never actually hear from Tracey. 

And I didn't quite understand what was going on at the beginning of the book once we got to the end. Were people attacking the narrator because they saw that video from when they were kids?

It was an interesting thing to have happen to a person; an interesting story to tell, sure, but it's almost like the narrative choice here avoids actually telling the story outright. You get the story but as a side to the narrator telling us about all the people in her life and how they people it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent and Sexual assault

abrooklynbookshelf's review against another edition

4.0

3.5? 3.75? Hard to say with this one...I love Zadie Smith but I didn't actually love Swing Time as much as her others. I liked it, but not loved.

Zadie Smith is wildly intelligent and is a magnificent writer, so besides not being able to keep up sometimes, no complaints there. It's a fantastically written book.

My biggest thing was that I felt like moments I wanted to stay in were over so quickly; much of the story that had the most detail was the bigger picture, not the smaller moments that happened within that. And that bigger picture was a little bit repetitive, not 100% in a bad way, but it made it so that when a smaller storyline was brewing, that's what I wanted to focus on, and they were always over so fast, sometimes just in one sentence. It left me with this feeling that I was missing scenes, that there were these things happening in the lives of the characters that were happening and happened, yes, somewhere right in front of my face, but I missed them.

But, it is a great story and I'm glad I finally got the chance to read it.

alinawnm's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lotteee11's review against another edition

sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Again, I already kind of zoned out at the start when the main character said she remembered something from when she was 2 years old, which is practically impossible (the writer came back to it later, but unconvincingly). The writing style didn’t suit me, and made me wonder why all books nowadays have to be written with time jumps. I feel like the storyline would actually have been much stronger if told chronologically. On top of that, the main character’s passive attitude annoyed me. The ending was also mediocre. In short: wouldn’t recommend.