Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this as an audiobook; I just let it rush over me and absorbed it rather than intently listened. The prose is a bit cryptic, but the story is always there underneath. It has an unusual rhythm. I liked it.
So I struggled through the first part of this book. Leah did not interest me at all. Felix and then Keisha really brought it home for me though. Zadie outdid herself with the fragmented paragraphs for Keisha's life.
Zadie Smith has a flair for detail and dialogue. Her prose is perfect. Still, I didn't find myself drawn into this book as I have been with her others. The characters and plot were nowhere near as interesting as her previous efforts.
For a few years Zadie Smith's On Beauty would be my answer to the question, What is your favourite book? She writes with a creativity and freedom from constraint that's a pleasure to encounter, while also making her stories feel natural and unforced. Like Elif Shafak but a bit less obvious and cartoonish.
N-W is another winner from Zadie. She builds up a picture of a place (northwest London) so gradually and finely, with so many small details, colloquialisms, sights and smells, that it's almost immersive.
I was compelled by the story (with a few peaks and troughs), which dwelt around the evergreen theme of forging a self in a complex and often harrowing world.
Any other Zadie Smith fans out there?
N-W is another winner from Zadie. She builds up a picture of a place (northwest London) so gradually and finely, with so many small details, colloquialisms, sights and smells, that it's almost immersive.
I was compelled by the story (with a few peaks and troughs), which dwelt around the evergreen theme of forging a self in a complex and often harrowing world.
Any other Zadie Smith fans out there?
At certain points, this book really resonated with my own life, but it was otherwise eh?
slow-paced
Oh my, this novel was so incredibly chaotic, empty and boring that I have nothing else to say than that I agree with the conclusion of a review in the Guardian : "The real mistery of NW is that it falls so far short of being a successful novel, though it contains the makings of three or four"
Much to like about this book, ultimately have preferred some of her other work.
Disappointing. Too much effort and not enough essence. I think if she had focused more on the story, and less on her artsy techniques (which felt gimmicky to me), I would have enjoyed this book much more.
Didn't love NW to start with, but after reading a few online reviews, I decided to stick it out, and ended up liking it much more as I got into the swing of her unusual structure for this book.