The Autograph Man
by Zadie Smith
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1929)
Read in July, 2007
I started this book with a good deal of skepticism. I consider White Teeth to be among my most favorite books, but the first 50 pages of The Autograph Man failed to live up to the previous book's standard. Happily, by the end of the book, I had fallen back in love with Zadie Smith's writing. She wins again!
My friend called The Autograph Man a "light comic caper." The plot of this book would seem to agree: Alex Li-Tandem gallivants across the Atlantic chasing down the autograp...more
My friend called The Autograph Man a "light comic caper." The plot of this book would seem to agree: Alex Li-Tandem gallivants across the Atlantic chasing down the autograp...more
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Read in February, 2008
What started out as a promising read quickly turned into a...really crappy one. I know this makes me sound somewhat like a whiny seventh grader when I say this, but god, this book was booooorring. I read the entire thing hoping that at some point it'd turn the corner and pick up the pace, but no, it just basically ground itself out into a completely anti-climactic ending. But before that we got pages and pages of...I don't even know what, I disliked this book so much that I immediately purged it...more
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Read in June, 2007
I recommend White Teeth to everyone who ever asks me about my intercultural experiences and my overt antagonism towards people who belittle me by calling me "a foreigner". So I was excited to read The Autograph Man, hoping that it would give me an insight into another section of the world, one that I had less contact and experience with. And in many ways, I suppose it did. But I can't say that I came out of the read with better understanding other than perhaps distress at...more
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Read in June, 2007
I enjoyed Smith's writing style far more than I enjoyed the plot (which promised some things but delivered others) or the characters (who are neatly drawn, but on paper that is very thin indeed); but even the sometimes whimsical, sometimes nervy, sometimes delightful turns of her prose weren't enough to save The Autograph Man from being something of a disappointment. It's more mature in some ways than White Teeth, darke...more
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Read in February, 2008
Seems like I'm in the minority, but I thought this was a better read than Smith's wildly acclaimed debut "White Teeth" (which I liked, but also found problematic, simply due to its ambitious reach). Here we have a moderately quirky, casually postmodern exploration of modern, multicultural London and New York. Smith's themes here are big and broad, questions about identity and authenticity, celebrity, fame, death and grieving, friendship and family, religion, mysticism. Heady stuff, ...more
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Read in June, 2007
"Alex, like everybody, held hospitals in the hightest, purest dread and loathing. To come in with a bump and leave with the baby--this is the only grace available in a hospital. Other than that, there is only pain. The concentration of pain. Hospitals are unique in this concentration. There are no areas in the world dedicated to the concentration of pleasure (theme parks and their like are a concentration of the symbols of pleasure, not pleasure itself), there are no buildings...more
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Read in April, 2006
I learned a lesson about the "bargain table" at big bookstores through this book. I was delighted when I found this one on such a table for about $5, because I love Zadie Smith, but after reading it, realized why it was there. It isn't a bad story, but the themes have been re-cycled from White Teeth and characters aren't formed completely and thus, are only shadows of the ones in her other books. Lesson learned: if a new book by a talented current author is there and on sale for less t...more
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Read in March, 2008
Zadie Smith certainly has a way with characters and dialogue. Her characters live. (The only character I found a bit underdeveloped was Esther, but this may have been intentional as we only see her through Alex's thoughts and what others say to him for most of the book.)
The plot is inventive and, despite one early section, kept my interest throughout. I will certainly forgive the only one or two quirky areas where I thought some editing might've been good in order to have the exuberant, d...more
The plot is inventive and, despite one early section, kept my interest throughout. I will certainly forgive the only one or two quirky areas where I thought some editing might've been good in order to have the exuberant, d...more
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Read in January, 2008
Reading Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man is like viewing a horrific car crash. You want to look away but something draws you into the scene. Each of these characters is so flawed to the point of unlikeable I almost wanted to stop reading midway through the book. As flawed as these characters are, their personal quests for minute accomplishments -- be it seeking an autograph, or learning Torah -- revives the human element in them, evoking a curiosity. They're just seeking something larger than the...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Lexicon, Panda, Sam
I have a habit of dogearing pages with sentences that seem overwhelmingly profound to me. Then I go back and reread the page after I am done with the book to see how many still strike a cord.
There are already a couple of litters and I've just reached the third chapter. Maybe I had forgotten how Zadie Smith can tell you a story like she is whispering in your ear at a crowded cocktail party. She writes as though you share a secret; of shame & pain, underwhelming adolescence as well as the mi...more
There are already a couple of litters and I've just reached the third chapter. Maybe I had forgotten how Zadie Smith can tell you a story like she is whispering in your ear at a crowded cocktail party. She writes as though you share a secret; of shame & pain, underwhelming adolescence as well as the mi...more
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
people whose fathers have passed
I'm not sure if anyone whose father hasn't passed away at some point in their youth (or near it) can appreciate this book, at least judging by the comments I've heard like "it's okay, but not as good as White Teeth."
This book is better than White Teeth. She really does a beautiful thing in capturing the prolonged daze and subconcious pain of what it's like, and manages to have it be funny at points or at least light, with a random mix of pop cultural elements. Additionally, I ...more
This book is better than White Teeth. She really does a beautiful thing in capturing the prolonged daze and subconcious pain of what it's like, and manages to have it be funny at points or at least light, with a random mix of pop cultural elements. Additionally, I ...more
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Read in July, 2007
This is my first Zadie Smith novel. I wanted to read White Teeth but it wasn't at the library. I am still trying to digest this book 2 months after I've read it. It was funny at times, really funny and it was constantly interesting. The story of an autograph man is original. What does it mean to collect autographs for a living? What kind of reality are you living in if you are searching for famous people's signatures from the past? This makes for an interesting character. I need to thi...more
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you know, it took me a year to read this book (i lost it for awhile after i'd moved back to chicago). i think that might have affected my opinion of the book.
the plot is pretty interesting, and i liked the characters very much. what i liked most is zadie smith's writing - it is just absolutely beautiful and so finely detailed and i love knowing exactly what she's talking about because she put it so eloquently.
this is the only smith book i've read (i look forward to white teeth, and on be...more
the plot is pretty interesting, and i liked the characters very much. what i liked most is zadie smith's writing - it is just absolutely beautiful and so finely detailed and i love knowing exactly what she's talking about because she put it so eloquently.
this is the only smith book i've read (i look forward to white teeth, and on be...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
People Who Are Sadists
I love ZS. I don't love this book. Couldn't even finish it even though I love LOVE LLOOVVEE "White Teeth." You would think that I could too since:
1. I am of the asian persuasion
2. Fame is very interesting to me
3. Huge ZS fan. (Basically I will buy anything that she is associated with.)
But this book was wooden, boring, and the characters seem to aim out in her world kind of without purpose. Or if there was purpose it was lost on me since I really didn't give a crap a...more
1. I am of the asian persuasion
2. Fame is very interesting to me
3. Huge ZS fan. (Basically I will buy anything that she is associated with.)
But this book was wooden, boring, and the characters seem to aim out in her world kind of without purpose. Or if there was purpose it was lost on me since I really didn't give a crap a...more
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A weaker second novel. It was not easy to follow up a debut like White Teeth and though The Autograph man is a pretty ok attempt to capture the reader (me) again Zadie is not even close to keep me hypnotized the same way White Teeth did. It is capturing enough to keep me longing for the next one from Zadie cause even though the story never quite leaves the ground it has its' moments and the way she use the language is seldom seen in this genre of witty books. Contemporary comedy is rarely sophis...more
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Read in August, 2007
I hated the main character and didn't understand his choices. I found it really hard to concentrate on what was going on (admittedly I was listening to the book over one drive and in short chunks) and found I didn't care, which can't be good. Towards the latter half of the book, I kept wanting it to speed up and end already! There is one brief section I did like towards the beginning of the novel, narrated from the point of view of the Alex's father. But it's a very short section in comparis...more
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Hmm. Zadie Smith, for someone who's approximately my age, and on the list of People Who Make Me Feel Woefully Inadequate, this was a tiny bit of a sophomore slump for you.
However, let us remember, you were coming off of 'White Teeth', and everything's relative.
I actually still liked the book, even though it did fall apart in places, and I thought the narrative dragged. I liked the use of Kabbalah, and the autographs, as two life-structuring concepts that characters were obsessed with.
However, let us remember, you were coming off of 'White Teeth', and everything's relative.
I actually still liked the book, even though it did fall apart in places, and I thought the narrative dragged. I liked the use of Kabbalah, and the autographs, as two life-structuring concepts that characters were obsessed with.
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Read in June, 2007
I love Zadie Smith's writing style. I enjoyed White Teeth very much, but I found myslef liking this book much more than I thought I would and more than White Teeth.
I tend to like books where I am able to feel a lot for the characters, especially for the main character when they are not particularly all that likeable. Smith has a very lyrical manner of writing that gives more life to the story than many similar writers; it also makes the story more believable.
I tend to like books where I am able to feel a lot for the characters, especially for the main character when they are not particularly all that likeable. Smith has a very lyrical manner of writing that gives more life to the story than many similar writers; it also makes the story more believable.
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Alex is a Chinese-British Jew. He collects and sells rare autographs for a living. He is writing a book cataloging extremely non-Jewish phenomena. He is lazy and self-centered and obsessed with obtaining a very particular autograph.
The Autograph Man is rips with hilarious observations of universal man disguised in the particular ethnicity of the title character. [Reader raises right eyebrow and gives a half smile in universal sign of devilish good nature...]
The Autograph Man is rips with hilarious observations of universal man disguised in the particular ethnicity of the title character. [Reader raises right eyebrow and gives a half smile in universal sign of devilish good nature...]
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Read in August, 2007
This was, for a lack of a better word, too 'literary' for me. It might just be the fact that I've been out of school for a while and don't like to think too hard, or also that I'm on vacation and have spent the past 4 days sitting on the beach drinking beer and frying my skin as well as my brain, but it just wasn't very rewarding to read. I think I need to be better at figuring out which books are worth finishing and when I should just jump ship.
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