Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ridgewaygirl 's review for:
NW
by Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith's new novel tells the story of two friends, who grew up together in a housing estate in London, but have since gone on to live very different lives. Leah went to college up north and then on to work for a local government agency. She's the only white woman working there and she's married to Michel, a French-African hairdresser who really wants to start a family, while Leah still isn't sure, isn't ready and can't see why everyone else is speeding ahead with adulthood. Keisha renamed herself Natalie sometime before law school and married a guy with a public school education and money. She's doing very well for herself with her beautiful house and children as well as a successful career. But she's uncertain of herself, worried about whether she has a personality and genuine desires of her own. The two women still see each other, but it's been years since they were close.
There's an odd self-consciousness to this book, as though Smith is aware on every page that she's writing an important novel about class and ethnicity in today's Britain. It takes away from the characters and the story itself as actions, thoughts and events all carry the weight of representation. Something happens partway through the novel and it takes off despite itself, making for a very good book for a long stretch of its middle. There are some stylistic choices, too, that seem less organic for this particular novel than as ideas the author is trying out. Smith is an intelligent and observant writer, which makes what she writes very good indeed, but that very intelligence and awareness get in her way at times. This is a better book than White Teeth and I suspect that in a few more years, no one will be able to surpass her. She's just not there yet.
There's an odd self-consciousness to this book, as though Smith is aware on every page that she's writing an important novel about class and ethnicity in today's Britain. It takes away from the characters and the story itself as actions, thoughts and events all carry the weight of representation. Something happens partway through the novel and it takes off despite itself, making for a very good book for a long stretch of its middle. There are some stylistic choices, too, that seem less organic for this particular novel than as ideas the author is trying out. Smith is an intelligent and observant writer, which makes what she writes very good indeed, but that very intelligence and awareness get in her way at times. This is a better book than White Teeth and I suspect that in a few more years, no one will be able to surpass her. She's just not there yet.