On Beauty
by Zadie Smith
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 9514)
Read in November, 2006
Just like <em>White Teeth</em> years ago, I read every single page of Zadie Smith's <em>On Beauty</em> with both joy and jealousy. Joy because it is one of the best books I've ever read, superbly bouncing the writer's ball of observation and insight against the borders of love and fidelity; race and class; intellectualism and empathy; beauty and power; conservativsim and liberalism; theory and practice. Jealousy because it is precisely the sort of novel I would have liked...more
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Zadie Smith's 2005 book, On Beauty, is surprisingly light on beauty - hers instead is a world of sometimes cringe-inducing and sometimes awe-inspiring reality. Her talent is finding those strange but common moments of confusing thought and excising them of their mystery, something that she does very well here (though maybe not as stunningly in her debut, White Teeth).
As usual, Smith focuses on characterizations that make her protagonists jump off the page - in this case the saga of two fami...more
As usual, Smith focuses on characterizations that make her protagonists jump off the page - in this case the saga of two fami...more
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Read in May, 2008
I would probably give this book three and a half stars, which is not an option here. I thought it was well-written and had many interesting, memorable scenes, but the book did not really feel like a cohesive whole. The story follows an interracial family in an academic setting. The father is a white art history professor at a private liberal arts college in a fictional suburb of Boston; his wife is a black southern woman and they have three kids.
The title "On Beauty" comes from a...more
The title "On Beauty" comes from a...more
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I don't know what it was, but this book didn't live up to my expectations. I had heard a lot of good things about this book, and decided to pick it up after coming across it in the library, but it just fell short. It wasn't a bad book by any means—something just didn't click right with me. For the first two hundred fifty pages, I was just reading it to have something to do, practically, but the last half of the book was the only bit that really caught my interest.
I'm not really sure why I ...more
I'm not really sure why I ...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
people interested in: race and youth in America, politics, universities
(3.5 stars)
I don't often feel this way about books but I felt at an inherent disadvantage reading this as a white girl. The main ideas explored have so much to do with race and racial conflicts in particular. Set primarily in Boston, it concerns a marriage between a white professor and a black woman and their kids who struggle to fit into their world. For example, the younger of the two brothers who wants to talk "street" but is ashamed that he lives in an upper middle class are...more
I don't often feel this way about books but I felt at an inherent disadvantage reading this as a white girl. The main ideas explored have so much to do with race and racial conflicts in particular. Set primarily in Boston, it concerns a marriage between a white professor and a black woman and their kids who struggle to fit into their world. For example, the younger of the two brothers who wants to talk "street" but is ashamed that he lives in an upper middle class are...more
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Read in June, 2006
Now that I've had a week to think about what was said at the book group about this book, I feel like I've clarified some things. I think the book had some interesting things to say about how intellectuals and non-intellectuals view the world. Smith can definitely see benefits to both sides, but she tended to skew the intellectuals toward the Major Fuck Up category. And she also tended to use the physically beautiful characters in this book as guinea pigs of behavior. Some of the pretty ones had ...more
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Read in December, 2005
Here's what I wrote about On Beauty in the Honolulu Weekly:
Poor Zadie Smith published White Teeth at an absurdly young age to massive critical acclaim. Her second novel, The Autograph Man, bombed like Frank DeLima at a Hawaiian Studies faculty dinner. White Teeth was an incredibly intricate tale of three families in North London, colliding with each other in an explosion of cultural, racial and religious confetti that exemplified Britain’s imperial past and neo-imperial present. The...more
Poor Zadie Smith published White Teeth at an absurdly young age to massive critical acclaim. Her second novel, The Autograph Man, bombed like Frank DeLima at a Hawaiian Studies faculty dinner. White Teeth was an incredibly intricate tale of three families in North London, colliding with each other in an explosion of cultural, racial and religious confetti that exemplified Britain’s imperial past and neo-imperial present. The...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
the Dave Eggers, Zadie Smith, Jonathan Lethem crowd.
I liked this book. Having read several of the reviews for this book, I have to say that I agree with parts of each review that I read. Those who did not like the book often cited a lack of authenticity in the American "slang" speech patterns, and I'd have to agree that there was some unnaturalness to the vernacular in the book. However, I found myself interested enough in the themes and characters of the book to overlook the slight inaccuracies of speech patterns.
I should say, how...more
I should say, how...more
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i loved, loved white teeth. i did not like on beauty. i'm afraid zadie smith wasn't able to capture american-speak very well. kiki has southern roots and, at times, she supposedly "went florida" in her speech and mannerism, but this was something smith simply stated rather than demonstrated. i could excuse levi's not entirey successful attempts at urban dialogue given his suburban/academic family background, but not carl's. maybe i'm extra critical b/c, in a past life, i spent som...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
oh, probably Eric
Fellow writers: you know that feeling when you read an author's work and you hang your head in your hands and think, "Damn, I'll never have as much wit or insight as this author does in her pinky toe?"
If such writer-jealousy plagues you often, don't pick up On Beauty. You may weep with jealousy.
I loved every page of On Beauty. Smith captures human idiosyncrasies with charm in this in this roaringly funny dysfunctional family portrait; a keen satire of over...more
If such writer-jealousy plagues you often, don't pick up On Beauty. You may weep with jealousy.
I loved every page of On Beauty. Smith captures human idiosyncrasies with charm in this in this roaringly funny dysfunctional family portrait; a keen satire of over...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
people who want a nonembarrassing light read for the subway.
Perhaps unfairly, many members of the NOW-NYC book club felt let down by On Beauty. It is hard to explain why. The book’s themes: race and gender relations, body image, and cultural identity, are all important to NOW-NYC and are addressed with care and respect. Because of these themes, our discussion of the book was interesting and thought-provoking. Yet we were expecting something more, and it is hard to articulate what was missing.
Loosely based on the EM Forester classic, Howard’s End...more
Loosely based on the EM Forester classic, Howard’s End...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
The people who recommended it to me?
I'm beginning to think the problem isn't the books, but me. I was really, really primed to like this book. Not only had one friend spoken favorably of it, another had seen to it that the book was carried all the way from Malawi, Africa to New York and then sent to me.
I am embarrassed to report I had a hard time even finishing it. My primary complaint is contrivances. The dialogue was unnatural to me...and the plot, my goodness. It was hard enough to believe in such a deep academic feud betw...more
I am embarrassed to report I had a hard time even finishing it. My primary complaint is contrivances. The dialogue was unnatural to me...and the plot, my goodness. It was hard enough to believe in such a deep academic feud betw...more
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I read "White Teeth" by Smith, not long after it came out. I cannot remember a lot about it except that it felt "sprawling." I think this book will stick with me a little longer because it's more focused on a few characters, and, in particular, on one family. I can understand the vitriolic words that can arise in academic circles, but the part of the book that dealt with the conflict between the two professors felt a little forced. Perhaps it's because while Howard was ex...more
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Read in April, 2007
This third novel by the impossibly young and good-looking Zadie Smith hits mostly resonant notes. All of the reviews are true: it is hilariously funny, at times. But it isn't all mirth. Smith gives us a portrait of a family, and the chapters that emerge of marriage, fidelity - and its opposite, and the glory and ignominity of having nearly grown children are at turns tender and strident - maybe a little judgmental.
She also explores, in modest fashion, women's friendships and women's bodies....more
She also explores, in modest fashion, women's friendships and women's bodies....more
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Read in December, 2006
recommends it for:
zadie smith readers
I’m a fan of satire, and a fan of Zadie Smith's vivid characters and cheeky social commentary, at least in White Teeth. Her third novel On Beauty takes us to a New England college town (Smith taught at Harvard for a stint), where her ambitious send-up of race, class, university politics, and the usual batch of human flaws and failings loses some of her sure-footed moves from White Teeth.
In a sprawling interfamilial narrative, the story follows the decline of British-bo...more
In a sprawling interfamilial narrative, the story follows the decline of British-bo...more
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Read in August, 2006
Now, I'm one of those people who's a little jealous of Ms Smith's success, believing that she's caught a lot of attention due to her ethnicity, fabulous name and great looks plus she's clearly one smart cookie. From what I've heard her first book was marred by a bad ending and her second was just plain bad. I'll reserve judgement, but this reworking of Howard's End is expansively warm and attuned to nuances of behaviour and psychology. It's her great acheivement to make us sympathise with all of...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone
just as my idealized fantasies about academic life were getting a little out of control, the characters in this book come along to make me realize academics can be just as gross as lawyers at times. i also realize i have never read a book about a professor-family before.
in the middle of the book, i told someone that i didn't like any of the characters (except for levi, who is amazing), yet i liked the book - which speaks well for the author. by the end, i liked the characters more. the blac...more
in the middle of the book, i told someone that i didn't like any of the characters (except for levi, who is amazing), yet i liked the book - which speaks well for the author. by the end, i liked the characters more. the blac...more
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