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zainub_reads 's review for:
Intimations
by Zadie Smith
A short collection of six essays that are the writer’s reflections on 2020, the year of the pandemic.
What reads mainly like an assortment of thoughts from a personal diary these essays are all “small talk” at times lacking real depth despite conveying powerful emotions albeit in a very simplistic manner.
All the essays have sparks of brilliance that are poignant and thought provoking also, knowing that this book was conceived and written during the lockdown 1.0 makes me appreciative of it’s existence.
This book in a sense is an apt reflection of 2020 as it too is a bit uneven, scattered and all over the place, except in terms of travel off course!
The last essay “Contempt as a virus” is really the highlight of this collection and gives a very intriguing look at racism.
Written with deliberately simple and easy to read prose, Intimations is unusual yet, a comforting read.
Zadie Smith is a wonderful author but if you haven’t read any of her work before, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book as your first.
All the royalties of this book are being donated to a Covid relief charity and that definitely deserves a special mention.
“War transforms its participants. What was once necessary appears inessential; what was taken for granted, unappreciated and abused now reveals itself to be central to our existence. Strange inversions proliferate. People find themselves applauding a national health service that their own government criminally underfunded and neglected these past ten years. People thank God for “essential” workers they once considered lowly, who not so long ago they despised for wanting fifteen bucks an hour.”
“... the truth is that not enough carriers of this virus have ever been willing to risk the potential loss of any aspect of their social capital to find out what kind of America might lie on the other side of segregation. They are very happy to "blackout" their social media for a day, to read all-black books, and "educate" themselves about black issues — as long as this education does not occur in the form of actual black children attending their actual schools.”
What reads mainly like an assortment of thoughts from a personal diary these essays are all “small talk” at times lacking real depth despite conveying powerful emotions albeit in a very simplistic manner.
All the essays have sparks of brilliance that are poignant and thought provoking also, knowing that this book was conceived and written during the lockdown 1.0 makes me appreciative of it’s existence.
This book in a sense is an apt reflection of 2020 as it too is a bit uneven, scattered and all over the place, except in terms of travel off course!
The last essay “Contempt as a virus” is really the highlight of this collection and gives a very intriguing look at racism.
Written with deliberately simple and easy to read prose, Intimations is unusual yet, a comforting read.
Zadie Smith is a wonderful author but if you haven’t read any of her work before, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book as your first.
All the royalties of this book are being donated to a Covid relief charity and that definitely deserves a special mention.
“War transforms its participants. What was once necessary appears inessential; what was taken for granted, unappreciated and abused now reveals itself to be central to our existence. Strange inversions proliferate. People find themselves applauding a national health service that their own government criminally underfunded and neglected these past ten years. People thank God for “essential” workers they once considered lowly, who not so long ago they despised for wanting fifteen bucks an hour.”
“... the truth is that not enough carriers of this virus have ever been willing to risk the potential loss of any aspect of their social capital to find out what kind of America might lie on the other side of segregation. They are very happy to "blackout" their social media for a day, to read all-black books, and "educate" themselves about black issues — as long as this education does not occur in the form of actual black children attending their actual schools.”