A review by mitskacir
Swing Time by Zadie Smith

4.0

This was an excellent book. I felt the characters so strongly - the narrator reminded me of myself a lot, especially as a child. Shy, a follower, overpowered and overawed by a friend's more charismatic, controlling personality. And Tracy reminded me of so many of these charismatic, controlling friends I had growing up. But the book never demonizes Tracy, or even pities her. She is a fully fleshed and complicated, just as the narrator's relationship with her is. I really loved the parts of the book with Tracy, and wasn't as interested in the other parts, mainly when the narrator is an adult working for pop star Aimee.
I listened to the audiobook version of this, and the narrator was excellent. Her AAVE was pretty bad, but she was still able to give all the characters distinct voices and their personalities always came through.