Reviews with content warning for Slavery - The Fraud

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The Fraud by Zadie Smith

21 reviews

emziesreads's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

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

3.5

Overall, an enjoyable read but at times it felt there was too much padding. I did think it was clever that Smith had made a modern novel set in the 19th century read like a 19th century novel.

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ukponge's review

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

There are two key characters at the centre of The Fraud, a novel set in 19th century London. Eliza Touchet was abandoned by her husband who took their son and left her penniless. She was taken in by her brother-in-law, English novelist William Ainsworth, and employed as a housekeeper. The other key character is Andrew Bogle, a formerly enslaved man. Eliza accompanies Ainsworth’s wife to watch the case of the Tichborne claimant. Sir Roger Tichborne was thought to have drowned in a shipwreck, but a man claiming to be him appears and lays claim to the family fortune. Andrew Bogel had worked for the Tichborne family for many years and testifies in favour of the claimant. Eliza is taken with Andrew Bogel, recognising some of herself in him. The plot has got a lot more going on than this brief summary indicates, including Eliza having relationships with both Ainsworth and his first wife. Several aspects of this novel appealed to me. The first was its social critique especially with regards to race, gender and class. There’s lots of depth and intersectionality in the way these issues are explored, but the messaging is not heavy handed. There’s also some interesting exploration of slavery, the sugar trade, and the complicated and not always accurate ways many English people viewed Jamaica. A second aspect was the humour especially when it came to literature, both Eliza’s assessment of Ainsworth’s novels and his jealousy as his literary stocks fell while those of Charles Dickens rose. Some delicious fun is poked at Dickens along the way. I also liked that this story drew my attention to real people and events such as the Tichborne case that had previously flown under my radar.

This is Zadie Smith’s first foray into historical fiction and I found it more accessible than her previous novels I’ve read. I have read reviews where readers who have loved her previous works lament the loss of originality and zaniness in this book. As always tastes differ. It is not a short book but the short chapters made it read quickly as did Smith’s trademark snappy dialogue.

Many thanks to @penguinbooksnz for the complimentary review copy.

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knkoch's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

2.0

I confess myself disappointed. I was looking forward to this one because I’ve heard great things, but even more, heard that this was Zadie Smith’s nineteenth century novel acting as a sort of rebuttal to Charles Dickens. I’ve seen articles where she critiques his excess sentimentality, and discusses her choice to make Dickens a character in her book. I’m rather fond of Dickens’ work, and while that gives me some bias, I came to this with an open mind ready to hear what I saw as her counterpoint.

The Fraud is laid out in very short chapters spread across many ‘volumes’ within the book, likely to echo the serialization that Dickens and other authors of his time employed to release their books piecemeal to their readers in monthly periodicals. The short (1-3 page) chapters made it very easy to keep reading, but the overall structure of the book felt difficult to follow. The narrative jumps back and forth constantly between the 1830s and 1870s, following MC Eliza in her life as housekeeper to her author cousin W. Harrison Ainsworth. I could see Smith was layering multiple meanings on the idea of frauds, which remains interesting, but the plot didn’t have a strong arc for me. Some of the ‘mysteries’ seemed pretty unmysterious fairly early on, or strangely buried and unresolved.

And so, falling back on the characters, I was further disappointed. Only about 4-5 had true depth and empathy, with most of the secondary characters painted as caricatures. They were stupid, loud, drunken, or, especially, fat. There was a disconcerting amount of fatphobia, with fatness made to be an indicator of negative or immoral qualities in multiple characters. The amount of poking and sneering at fatness here was on the level of JK Rowling’s treatment of the Dursleys in HP. I’ve been noticing this way more in writing lately and I just hate when authors do this. Maybe it was meant to indicate the MC’s judgmental view of others, but it was a bummer to read over and over.

Dickens wrote characters with shades of these and other negative qualities, but almost always with some warmth or humor and rarely with the sort of predetermined judgement Smith did here. You wouldn’t want to borrow money, overly rely on, or move in with some Dickens characters, but few come off so distinctly unpleasant and devoid of charm as many characters in The Fraud. I’d much rather make up my own mind about people than be told whether they’re of value or not.

I do appreciate that Smith built a story on race, slavery, the sugar trade, and money. Race in particular is not a subject I’ve yet to come across in Dicken’s work, and certainly his disinterest or plain unacknowledgment is a failing of his, not uncommon for White writers of his generation. He likely did not care to pay attention racism and Britain’s imperial role in the slave trade. I appreciate that Smith corrects this, and interrogates the British colonial impact on Jamaica and living conditions for enslaved and affected people of color at this time of British history. It’s a story worth investigating and illuminating. I just wish the novel had spent more time in that zone. Much more of it seemed to be about the central trial, naturally, and lampooning the triviality of the white literary scene of the time which, sure, easy pickings, but was not necessarily as compelling or connected to the colonialism sections.

I am not so very interested in Dickens the man. I’ve no doubt his flaws and biases run deep, and are worth confronting and examining, but I’m also not invested in lionizing his character. I’m interested in how his work makes me feel: flayed and alive to the enormity of life. His work lived far beyond him, impacting not only his own time but echoing on through the decades. Some of that is because of the way we have lauded and exalted certain White writers endlessly, to the detriment of other diverse then-contemporary voices that never got deserved recognition. And yet. Dickens’ stories, though they’re set in 1800s Britain, metaphorically and thematically remind me of the time I live in now, and the people I’ve met. The struggles his characters underwent can still occur in new forms, as Barbara Kingsolver so recently demonstrated in Demon Copperhead. The Fraud wasn’t terrible, though I would be very interested to discuss this book with someone for whom it resonated with more. The bleak characters and less than clear message wearied rather than stimulated me. But obviously, I am a Dickens defender and likely have blindspots there, which I am trying to continuously confront. I will keep reading more by Zadie Smith in hopes of understanding her voice better than I did here.

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kirstym25's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

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

2.5

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happyknitter2020's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Enjoyed Zadie reading this on audio, but the focus of the story re fraud presentation was too much focused. I would have thought that the culture & how people were treated is much more important.

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muffmacguff's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I enjoyed this so much! It felt like a classic Zadie Smith novel that just happened to take place in the 19th century. Very thoughtful, challenging, and often funny. I loved seeing this world through Eliza’s eyes.

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