a_davis's review against another edition
I think reading this in print would be much better. I didn’t love the readers (Zadie Smith only did the first story ˙◠˙) and the stories were kind of hard to follow over audio
dllh's review against another edition
3.0
I've liked Zadie Smith's work from way back but don't think I had read any of her short stories. These were a mixed bag for me, some quite good and others pretty meh. She's poking at genre a fair bit, and some of this poking is more engaging and successful than other bits. On the whole, I like Smith's longer work better than her shorter work, and I think I'm finding that to be the case for most authors I read these days.
mommamel11's review
3.0
I gave this 3 stars because I am not a fan of short stories. I did love the story: Parent’s Morning Epiphany. I also liked: The Lazy River, Miss Adele Amidst the Corsets, Two Men Arrive in a Village, and Kelso Deconstructed.
tevreads's review
3.0
Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2020, Zadie Smith’s first published short story collection, Grand Union, didn’t quite do it for me. I love Zadie Smith as a writer, White Teeth was a great read and her contribution to publications like The New Yorker are always insightful. However, Grand Union seemed to offer only glimmers of her talent, some stories were topical and well-written, but it seemed most tried too hard to derive a sharp nuance of our current zeitgeist. It’s a tough ask to achieve such in a short story form, and credit to Smith for some great stories in this book overall.
ayem's review
Had to return to the library. Wasn’t really vibing with it anyway. I don’t usually read short stories but tend to prefer ones that are more grounded, humorous and lighthearted than the few I read in here were.
sirhe's review
3.0
In Grand Union, Zadie Smith does a good job of exploring characters especially those found around New York City. The short stories create lifelike depictions of overlooked individuals and provides the reader with a better understanding of their drive and perspective in life. Other than these descriptions, most of the stories are not memorable and lack much action.
naomibartlett's review
Had to give it back to the library before leaving for a long trip.
bethniamh's review against another edition
I tried so hard with this but I just couldn’t do another 150+ pages unfortunately