Review of Zadie Smith’s “The Autograph Man”

The Autograph Man

by
Zadie Smith




Sherrie Miranda‘s review
May 13, 2018  ·  edit

4.0 out of 5 stars

All Things considered, I Liked the Story

Format: Paperback

As a reader of Black & Latino authors, I bought Zadie Smith’s book in part because she is a black Brit. I thought I would learn something about life as a black, British female in London. The main character is a Chinese Jew and there are several other characters in the story, but the one black Brit is talked about a few times & gets about two minutes in an actual scene. There is even a black American prostitute in the story. She is not realistic at all, but none of the characters are.

That said, once I accepted that the novel was NOT about a character like Zadie, I did finally begin to enjoy the story. Alex Li Tandem and his friends are fascinating and unusual characters. And the story is like nothing I’ve ever read. I always thought people who collected autographs were rather silly people, but I now see that it is also a business and some collectors will do almost anything to get an autograph, including going halfway around the world, as well as forging a signature if they are desperate or delirious enough.

All things considered, I liked the story, but I do imagine I will like some of her other novels more.
Sherrie Miranda’s historically based, coming of age, Adventure novel “Secrets & Lies in El Salvador” is about an American girl in war-torn El Salvador:

http://tinyurl.com/klxbt4y

Her husband made a video for her novel. He wrote the song too.

You can watch it on YouTube or go to my home page:

https://sherriemiranda1.wordpress.com