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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
reflective
slow-paced
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Zadie Smith is always one of those authors I intend to get back to reading, but never seem to do. I am sure I've read her debut 'White Teeth' and pretty sure another one ('NW'?), but it was pre-Goodreads - so it's been that long ago! But when I saw she had this short collection of essays written earlier this year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic I decided to jump on it. As expected (and remembered), Smith's writing is stellar and the essay entitled 'Postscript: Contempt as a Virus' is worth the price of the slim volume alone as it is one of the best things I have read about race in this post-George Floyd stage of reckoning here in the US.
Otherwise, and as is often the case, in essay (or short story) collections your mileage may vary on what resonates vs. what again, is just some smart, literary prose on the page. While I can't believe I am saying it, I would have liked it to have more direct commentary on Covid -- often it's just implied between the lines as anything you talk/write about right now is about Covid, even if it's not. Got that?
A quick read if looking for a non-fiction diversion -- and even better, Smith is donating the proceeds from this to charity. The US edition appears to be going to The Equal Justice Initiative and The Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund for New York (Smith is currently a tenured professor at NYU).
"The profound misapprehension of reality is what, more or less,
constitutes the mental state we used to call “madness,” and when the world
itself turns unrecognizable, appears to go “mad,” I find myself wondering
what the effect is on those who never in the first place experienced a
smooth relation between the phenomena of the world and their own minds."
constitutes the mental state we used to call “madness,” and when the world
itself turns unrecognizable, appears to go “mad,” I find myself wondering
what the effect is on those who never in the first place experienced a
smooth relation between the phenomena of the world and their own minds."
Essays are a form of expression I cherish the most and have spent a large part of my college years in thrall of Zadie Smith's obvious mastery of the said form. However, Intimations lacked any precision or joy that initially drew me to Smith, and I suppose a lot of the readers read this clutch of haphazard writings because it is Zadie after all--she's still an author to read.
Or have I just grown up and now violently dislike someone quoting Kierkegaard instead of writing what they feel?
In either case, this didn't nourish me nor did I enjoy it.
Or have I just grown up and now violently dislike someone quoting Kierkegaard instead of writing what they feel?
In either case, this didn't nourish me nor did I enjoy it.
In a lonely year, this book makes you feel less alone.
I've never read any of Zadie Smith's work before, but in this small book of essays, she captures the here-and-now of the pandemic. I've spent four years being angry at the current president, but the words that Smith shared in her second piece in Intimations may be some of his most idiotic, "I wish we could have our old life back. We had the greatest economy that we’ve ever had, and we didn’t have death.” Smith mulls over things that most thinking people have wondered about — health care and its disparities and inequalities in the US, and why many Americans are unwilling to grasp the concept of wearing a mask for the health of others. Smith says, “There is no great difference between novels and banana bread. They are both just something to do.” Her essays provided me with something much better than banana bread.
As soon as I heard about this collection of essays by one of my favourite writers in the world, there was no doubt that I would read it of course. I love Zadie Smith and try to read everything she writes but I'm also interested in reading people's musings on the situation we're in right now. The only other "Covid-book" that I've read so far this year is Ali Smith's "Summer", in which she also touches upon the pandemic, lockdown and all its effects.
Naturally, this book - or rather, collection of essays - is different. In "Intimations", Zadie Smith deals with various topics that hit close to home now such as how leaders of the world such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have dealt with this pandemic and Trump's war rhetoric. The way we now care about things we took for granted before, like healthcare. She also wonders what the importance of writing is when a pandemic is going on and what the relationship between time and our work is. The strongest bits of writing in this collection, for me, were first of all the essay in which she touches upon our privilege and how we can compare our suffering - something that I've been musing upon a lot lately. The part about contempt and seeing racism as well as a virus, that essay in particular will stay with me for a long time to come.
This is not a "Covid-book" as such, it's an exploration of what it means to be in this new situation and how we relate to people in isolation. It shows us Zadie Smith's own reflections but leaves enough room for all of us to reflect as well, to look at what every single thing she brings up means in our own contexts, all of which in the writing style I love so much. I'm glad I read this on the brink of this year ending.
Naturally, this book - or rather, collection of essays - is different. In "Intimations", Zadie Smith deals with various topics that hit close to home now such as how leaders of the world such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have dealt with this pandemic and Trump's war rhetoric. The way we now care about things we took for granted before, like healthcare. She also wonders what the importance of writing is when a pandemic is going on and what the relationship between time and our work is. The strongest bits of writing in this collection, for me, were first of all the essay in which she touches upon our privilege and how we can compare our suffering - something that I've been musing upon a lot lately. The part about contempt and seeing racism as well as a virus, that essay in particular will stay with me for a long time to come.
This is not a "Covid-book" as such, it's an exploration of what it means to be in this new situation and how we relate to people in isolation. It shows us Zadie Smith's own reflections but leaves enough room for all of us to reflect as well, to look at what every single thing she brings up means in our own contexts, all of which in the writing style I love so much. I'm glad I read this on the brink of this year ending.