NW in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 13, 2013 Madeleine rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-for-hipsters

I love Zadie Smith. The end.

I enjoyed this far more than On Beauty, from which I conclude (probably unfairly) that Zadie Smith does English characters perfectly but American characters less so. ...more

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Jun 22, 2019 Jillian rated it really liked it

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

In true Zadie Smith style, the writing style is experimental. The dialogue is very well done, and there are moments of writing so brilliant it’s breath-taking. Otherwise, in way of plot I felt a little lost, which I think is some of the point, but it also made the book a little slow moving. I had a hard time figuring out who was who and how people were related, and sometimes the style was so out-there I had to reread passages multiple times to keep up with what was goin ...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Sam rated it it was ok

Shelves: reviewed, 1-contemp-literary, read-2012

At the beginning of NW, I felt as if I had pried open the door to Smith’s world and was peeking into the colorful scenes that passed quickly by me. I was convinced that eventually, someone from that world would grab me by the collar, pull me over the threshold, through the door, and fully into that world. If only I continued to read on, I reasoned, I’d eventually become immersed in the lives of the characters, gain new insight into their (and our) world, or be struck my some observation that got At the beginning of NW, I felt as if I had pried open the door to Smith’s world and was peeking into the colorful scenes that passed quickly by me. I was convinced that eventually, someone from that world would grab me by the collar, pull me over the threshold, through the door, and fully into that world. If only I continued to read on, I reasoned, I’d eventually become immersed in the lives of the characters, gain new insight into their (and our) world, or be struck my some observation that got to the heart of things. Instead, I closed the book at the end feeling empty and dissatisfied; I never really did make it over that threshold.

I understood what Smith was trying to do as she teased out issues of class, social mobility, and identity. The picture that she painted of her beloved northwest corner of London was sharp and alive. And, unsurprisingly, her ability to capture the language as people speak it in real life seemed on point as ever. The prose was stripped down—there were no unnecessary words; at times she’d just throw out single adjectives at you or barely complete sentences (even in the less stream-of-conscious sections). This economizing lent a poetic quality to much of the book. When every single word counts like that, you have to pay attention—this is not a book to read when you’re distracted.

Yet even as I appreciated the artfulness at play, there was an arms-length distance that I felt toward the stories of Leah, Felix, Natalie, and Nathan. Sure, we got into the heads of at least those first three characters, but that distance endured. I could never overcome it enough to arrive at a point where I could care about the characters’ motivations and actions or what happened to them. The closest I came to that was in Natalie’s section, but even then my indifference softened only a tiny bit. These characters just didn’t seem entirely real and ‘knowable.’ I ended each section asking, “So what?” I’m not sure that I can attribute this disconnect to the different styles in which each section was written; Leah’s stream of consciousness section (though unengaging) wasn’t as distracting for me as it seemed to be for other readers, and neither was Natalie’s section with the numbered vignettes. But somehow the prose didn’t add up to anything substantive and fulfilling enough. Perhaps it was too impressionistic and subtle for me to appreciate fully.

I’m completely comfortable in conceding that the failure to connect was likely a failure on my end. It pains me to give anything by Zadie Smith less than three stars because I have a lot of respect for her. In the end though, it came down to how NW just didn’t resonate with me.
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Aug 13, 2014 Windy rated it did not like it

I'm just not in the mood for this. It's my reading group choice but I've too much on my mind to concentrate on this. ...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Nikki Morse rated it liked it

So, I hated the first 175 pages of this book, and almost quit it, which is very rare for me. I found it inaccessible and hard to connect in any way to the characters. And then I got pretty captivated by the second half, enough so that I'm ready the first half again. This was my book groups pick, so I'm so thrilled to have a chance to discuss it. ...more

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