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j___sayer's review against another edition
3.0
Chapter on privilege vs suffering as well as other insights throughout
zoereadsnrambles's review against another edition
4.0
ever since quarantine began in march 2020, i’ve been mentally bracing myself for the inevitable flood of memoirs and essays and think pieces that were going to come out of it. everyone reflecting on “what’s really important now”. and due to that, i didn’t read any of them. now 4 years later, i am reading first quarantine/pandemic essay collection — and let me just say, i am glad it was this one. zadie smith is just so incredible. smith tells us how she feels and what she is thinking in such a mesmerizing way. she talks about life under covid, of course, as well as privilege and contempt. i was in awe of how smith compared the epidemic of contempt to the covid pandemic, and tying those themes into other social justice and political issues — such as george floyds murder, police brutality, and class issues.
as with most essay collections, there were some that weren’t as compelling as others, but overall this is a solid essay collection. i found maybe 2 or 3 of the essays to need some tighter editing, but overall it wasn’t anything too dire. these essays are short, full of understanding, to the point where what smith is saying is easy to grasp, while also being incredibly thought provoking. this is a quick read, some reflection, some polemic, very personal and thoughtful. overall very insightful and great read.
as with most essay collections, there were some that weren’t as compelling as others, but overall this is a solid essay collection. i found maybe 2 or 3 of the essays to need some tighter editing, but overall it wasn’t anything too dire. these essays are short, full of understanding, to the point where what smith is saying is easy to grasp, while also being incredibly thought provoking. this is a quick read, some reflection, some polemic, very personal and thoughtful. overall very insightful and great read.
lilalia's review against another edition
5.0
Welcomed insights into the life of author during this historic time.
whimsicallymeghan's review against another edition
4.0
A collection of six short essays depicting Smith’s thoughts and muses through the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s something about Smith’s non-fiction that just hits different for this reader. The reader liked that these essays were short because it gave enough time for the reader to read and reread her thoughts and to really let the words she’s saying sink in before moving on to something else, like you’re really absorbing what you’re reading. The way she writes leaves so much room for thought. Her ideas are definitely thought provoking and really make you think about things in different ways or in ways that they wouldn’t have thought otherwise. It’s great to read from different perspectives to see how other people perceive the world. Obviously, no one is obligated to agree with everything she says, and this reader didn’t agree with everything, but they appreciated her views and could respect her opinions. Speaking of the pandemic, that’s one thing this reader has learned a lot from it, realizing that not everyone is going to have the same thoughts, which was already known, but learning to respect those opinions and how to have better conversations around that, and Smith touches on that here. It’s also wild to be reading this almost exactly four years after she wrote this and to see how far (or not so far) we’ve come since then. It made it feel a little introspective, but it’s still a pretty relevant read and certainly worth the read.
siriface's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Suicide, and Death