Reviews - On Beauty by Zadie Smith

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2.32k reviews for:

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith, Zadie Smith

3.83 AVERAGE

kirsi's review against another edition

4.0

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

literary_lauraaa's review against another edition

3.75

challenging slow-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

fionakarys's review against another edition

2.5

reflective slow-paced

simonalvey's review against another edition

5.0

A joy of a book, with wonderful insights about family, ideas of art and the ongoing fights of academia. There is something wonderfully self-contained about the campus novel which makes it a relaxing read during the current crisis, it is possible to get wrapped up in the issues of a small, deeply intelligent community without thinking of other things. I think that more would be made of the power relationships that the book contains if written now, and its points can feel hammered home, but these are quibbles

lauchamon's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

torithacher's review against another edition

3.0

Swept me off my feet, then sat me right back down.

Smith's prose in On Beauty carries adumbrations of Woolf's To the Lighthouse (one of my all-time favorites) in the way that the narrator drifted in and out of a plethora of characters' inner thoughts, like a light illuminating different rooms in a house. While I loved Smith's emulation of Woolf's writing, I was slightly underwhelmed by the plot development. I'm interested to see if Woolf's influence is a thread throughout Smith's other fiction.