Swing Time by Zadie Smith

[Maxwell]

This is a discussion thread for Swing Time by Zadie Smith. Please be courteous of spoilers; if you are going to discuss them, give fair warning of page/chapter number or use the spoiler tag. Thanks! Happy discussing.

[Julia]

So surprised by the selection of this book! Read it when it hit the bookstores, but by far it is not the best Zadie Smith's book. The writing is very unfocused and the characters are difficult to relate to (or perhaps not really thought through?). I saw someone commenting on her writing that she should write less and say more -- this definitely applies to this book. Hope that's not this year's winner!

[Michelle]

Haven't read this one but I read On Beauty by Zadie Smith, and it was really not my book in the end. Hope I get along with this one better!

[Julia]

Michelle wrote: "Haven't read this one but I read On Beauty by Zadie Smith, and it was really not my book in the end. Hope I get along with this one better!"
On Beauty is my favourite Zadie Smith's book actually :) I hope you'll enjoy this one though! Perhaps it's just a matter of taste.

[Lisa]

Yulia wrote: "So surprised by the selection of this book! Read it when it hit the bookstores, but by far it is not the best Zadie Smith's book. The writing is very unfocused and the characters are difficult to r..."
I agree, definitely not one of Zadie Smith's strongest novels. Nevertheless, I'm happy she's on there because I love her.

[Ieva]

This was my first Zadie Smith read and I was very excited + looking forward to read it because people have been raving about her writing, but I was not impressed.
The book definitely felt way too long for what it is, and I enjoyed the first part a lot more than the second half of the book.

[Justine]

This is the first Zadie Smith I've read too and probably wouldn't have read it if it wasn't on this longlist.

I really enjoyed the beginning of it - I was immediately interested in the story of the two young girls. But once it moved onto being about Aimee and Africa, I found it much less interesting. I think it would have been a much better book if it had just been about the friendship between the narrator and Tracey.

I found the ending such an anti-climax too. The intro had set it up to be a really intriguing plot but I was left feeling a bit 'is that it?'

[Charlott]

This is the second book I have read from the longlist (again back in November). Interestingly enough I did enjoy the book a lot while reading, but now with a few months having passed I feel a bit indifferent towards the novel.

I wrote back in November on Instagram: "Swing Time is a wonderful musing on friendship, growing up, ideals and dance - with an astute focus on race and class. I found all these characters compelling and while some might attest the book a slower pace, I loved the small descriptions and scenes." May be that still fits quite well - I did love reading these small scenes and moments, but in the long run it does not stick.

[Shari]

I read this book soon after it came out. I loved it, especially the ending which has stayed with me over several months. I am so glad it made the long list.

[Ernie]

This was my second Zadie Smith novel, and I can't say I was a big fan of NW. I've noticed that I don't really like a lot of her characters, but somehow, I really disliked NW while enjoying Swing Time. Not sure why yet.

Zadie Smith is so great at creating scenes that really just draw you in. I do agree that the beginning and ending of the book were a bit more compelling, but the more I went back and thought about the middle section in Africa, the more I embraced it. Smith handles the topics of race and class in such a delicate way, including cultural appropriation, and the more you dissect the issues, the more complex they become. Even still, I find that these, along with the friendship, are all underlying currents of the novel, and that the main story is that of the narrator and her search for identity and belonging (which is also why I think she remains nameless throughout the novel). She's a frustrating narrator to follow, but for me, I couldn't walk away.

[Paul]

I wasn't such a big fan Ernie but that is an interesting take.

As to why the character wasn't named, that is I think part of it. Zadie Smith has also said that in part it was unconscious on her behalf - she was a way into the book before she realised she hadn't named the narrator - and a natural result of using the first person, which is the first time Smith has done that in a novel.

[Kay]

So many varied opinions on this one... This is my first Smith (read it in the beginning of the year) and I really wanted to love it. I find Zadie Smith herself extremely interesting and wanted to translate that to the book, but it didn't happen. The book felt overly long and I never felt connected to the characters. I understand what she wanted to do, especially with the part in Africa, but something wasn't working. Ending felt very anticlimactic to me.

[Neil]

I've just finished this. I enjoyed it, but mainly what I enjoyed was the bits about the narrator and Tracey. The bits about the narrator and Aimee I could take or leave, even though I think Smith was looking to explore some important topics in those bits.

If you have the ebook, I found it interesting to do a word search on the word "shadow" in the book. Some of the quotes you get are very interesting when you put them all together.

[Ernie]

Hmm...I will have to do that. The narrator's view of experiencing herself as a shadow and always attaching herself to the light of other people and never having any light of her own comes very early in the book [page 4], and for me, it really set the tone for the entire novel. She's searching for identity in the book, but she's also searching for belonging and sometimes I thought also purpose...yet she's so passive, and that was frustrating.

[Neil]

Yes - that's the quote that set me off and from there on I was highlighting passages about shadows - there are several of them.

[Britta]

I just finished reading the book, and sadly, I didnt think it was very good... I said sadly, but I should also add 'not surprisingly' because Zadie Smith is one of those authors that I always think I should like and never do. More precisely, I really like her as a speaker, she is intelligent & eloquent and interesting & I also love reading her interviews and shorter essay, but so far, I've never liked her books.

And with Swing Time I had the same reaction as Justine: I tought the beginning was very good, the friendship with Tracey, but then all of a sudden there is this strange jump to the narrator's life with Aimee, and from then on, the book was lost on me. Jumbled, messy and way too long. And after finishing it I thought: What was the point?

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Britta, my views on Zadie Smith are not dissimilar to yours. In my mind I consider her one of my favourite authors and I have read each of her novels immediately they were published. When I read articles by her or interviews with her I am always hugely impressed. I have once heard her at a live book reading and she brought her book to life, brilliantly capturing the characters voices. And yet .... when I look back at my reviews I have been disappointed with all her novels since White Teeth.

[Hugh]

Britta, Gumble, On the whole I agree though I did enjoy On Beauty and some sections of N/W. I will probably get round to this one some time in the next couple of weeks. Her essay collection Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays was very interesting - in one of these she talks about her own approach to writing and admits that she doesn't usually have a grand plan or detailed plot when she starts writing...

[Clare]

I'm currently about midway through Swing Time. I'm really enjoying it! This is my first Zadie Smith and I'm glad I've finally got to her. I do agree that the narrative could benefit from some containment - the parts about our main character's childhood are so much stronger than the chapters with Aimee. I can't help thinking that it would be a better book if it just focused on Tracey but I'm hoping that the ending will tie everything together.

[Jill]

I feel the same way that many of you have mentioned. I find Zadie Smith articulate and interesting, and I expected to love this book but didn't. If it makes the shortlist, I want to read it again and possibly see things I missed the first time. I've never had time to re-read the books on the list, but I got lucky this year and have read many, so I may try this approach.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Yes I was lucky this year too Jill as I had read 10 of the list before it was announced (and two of the others had not been published). In previous years it's normally been 1 or 2. I am taking advantage of holiday to re-read them a group of them currently and have Swing Time lined up for next week. In my view it says a lot about the strength of this years list that so far I have enjoyed all the ones I have re read (Exit West, Underground Railroad, Solar Bones, Days Without End) and am looking forward to those I have to come next week (Swing Time, Reservoir 13, Lincoln in the Bardo).

[Corey]

I started this last night, but only got about 30 some pages in before I fell asleep (NOT because of the book!). I can't wait to get back to it. I'm really enjoying this one.

[David]

With quite an engaging and promising start, I thought I was in for a really good storyline...sadly, it didn't come good for me. Shade of Devil Wears Prada came through at points, but I found the whole thing rather dragged out right to the point where the end just fizzled out for me. Quite surprised to see it on the Booker Longlist (and disappointing to see this book make it over The Nix). I would try Zadie Smith again though as I genuinely did like where I thought it was going at the start.

[Corey]

I really enjoyed this book and definitely want to read more Zadie Smith.

**POTENTIAL SPOILERS**

To me this was a book about untapped potential. Did anyone else feel this? It was mentioned a lot how the protagonist lived as in a shadow, never discovering her own inner strength and light despite her obvious talents. Right up until the very last sentence I felt this so strongly. The protagonist is left in the shadows while everyone else dances.

[Neil]

Hi Corey - yes, I wrote about shadows in my review, too.

[nettebuecherkiste]

I have now reached the point in the book where the protagonist begins to recount her work for Amy. I'm beginning to understand why so many people don't like the book, I find these goings-on extremely boring while I loved the part about her and Tracy as children. Makes me really sad, the book had so much potential :-(

[Bartleby]

Just started reading it. That prologue was so inticing - but I may be biased: every book with movies and music as one of its subjects entirely grabs my attention. And this book has both. Also this thing of shame interests me a lot. And I'm loving the way the narrator dissects the behaviours of others, especially her mom...

[Ernie]

As mentioned in the general thread, here is a brief comment from the podcast interview with Lila Azam Zanganeh (LAZ) and Colin Thubron (CT) on the longlist selections.

Swing Time
CT: This is a book where the moment you read the first few sentences, you really know that you are in the hands of somebody who is masterly. It’s a big story, which takes the narrator to Africa and a whole other world. It’s a big novel. At its heart, most tellingly and movingly, is the story of two young girls who become young woman, their different paths, their different aspirations and what happens to them. The main protagonist is a young woman who is uncertain of herself. She often takes second place to those around her. It’s a lovely book. It’s typically Zadie Smith. It’s very humane, not obviously so, but you realize that you are in the heart and mind and voice who is very tender to her characters.

[Robert]

So far I'm liking it. I can definitely relate to the time period. I also do like the fact that Smith is name dropping bands (how many novels refer to A Tribe Called Quest???)


I'm sure Aimee is a Madonna/Kylie Minogue/ Lady Gaga hybrid.

[Hugh]

I think there is more of Madonna than anyone else in Aimee, and too much for her to really work as a fictional character. I did like large parts of this book, but I hope that Zadie Smith is capable of better things in future (my review).

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I think there is Angelina Jolie in there also for the humanitarian campaigning.

Robert will be interested if you keep liking it. I think most of us enjoyed the first 100 pages or so but not so much after that.

[Robert]

Tiny Spoiler

I see what you mean. Now I am halfway through. Although I am not bored, I will say that the vanity charity bit in Africa is dealt with in a superficial manner, when I saw a lot of potential to drive the race point home. The childhood chapters are great and bring out the racial messages of the novel.

oh Aimee releases an album in 1997 called Illumination. In 1998 Madonna released her album called Ray of Light. I smiled at that bit.

[Bartleby]

I am halfway through too. And I can't say if it was just some events in my life that kept me from reading it more frequently or if the book actually started to drag, but what I can say, and I disagree with you, Robert, is that I found this novel up till now to be uniformly packed with great, subtle ideas of class and race and all, case in point this passage (and you can find some like this really in each page, some subtler than others): [narrator talking to Fernando]:
"what's it like" I'd asked, leaning over him, looking out of the porthole window, and meaning, I must admit, "Africa".
"I have not been", he said coldly, without turning round.
"but you practically live here--I read your resume"
"no. Senegal, Liberia, Côte D'Ivoire, Sudan, Ethiopia, yes---Togo, never."
"Oh, well, you know what I mean."
He'd turned to me, red-faced, and asked: "If we were flying to Europe and you wanted to know what France was like, would it help if I described Germany?"


So it's being an enormously rewarding read, even though as I said I'm reading it more sparsely, I'm always glad with the pages I read. I think one just have to be open to seeing what she's [zadie] proposing to do, to talk about here, and the ways she's chosen to do so, the points of view through which the author allows us to see things; then one will find pleasure reading this text.

[Robert]

Thanks for your insight ☺

[Robert]

I'm probably in the minority but I think this is Zadie Smith's second best novel. A thought provoking read and one that has many themes but, unlike Arundhati Roy, manages to pull it off in a concise way!

[Stacey]

Hello! I just joined but have read a couple of the listed books already. I thought Swingtime a frivolous read when it began but as I opened my mind I saw a deeper message of immigration, assimilation, stereotypes and the cultural duplicity necessary to bridge the gap between family and societal expectations. I enjoyed it.

[Diane]

Gabriel wrote: "I am halfway through too. And I can't say if it was just some events in my life that kept me from reading it more frequently or if the book actually started to drag, but what I can say, and I disag..."

I really liked the book.. I don't know that I would say it was her best or second best but I agree that the first part was the best and most interesting. The second part was clearly making a not so very subtle statement about rich stars swooping into Africa to "save" it without understanding what is needed or how to help.