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strangeclippings 's review for:
NW
by Zadie Smith
In vignettes and sections, NW tells the stories of Leah, Keisha (who changes her name to Natalie), Felix, and Nathan, four people born into the same northwest London housing projects. Leah secretly takes the pill to avoid having children with her beautiful, perfect husband. Natalie is a successful lawyer with a husband and young kids who self-sabotages by finding random people to have sex with online. Felix is a well-meaning former junkie gone clean who still manages to wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nathan never pulled himself out of the projects and, we realize by the end of the book, never will.
This was a disappointing effort from a writer who is generally considered a literary prodigy. The four protagonists' lives were meant to be woven together, meandering through their 20s and ending up at the same place in their 30s, but it didn't feel cohesive as a novel, and I found myself wondering why Smith hadn't just written a collection of stories.
This was a disappointing effort from a writer who is generally considered a literary prodigy. The four protagonists' lives were meant to be woven together, meandering through their 20s and ending up at the same place in their 30s, but it didn't feel cohesive as a novel, and I found myself wondering why Smith hadn't just written a collection of stories.