abbie_ohara's review against another edition
2.0
Maybe I should have read white teeth? Harvard grads always write like they have something to prove. Didn’t like this one. Felt forced
librelivre's review against another edition
5.0
Stunning collection! I can’t quite unpack how wonderful it was but it certainly will find its readers among writers, art lovers, daughters, pop culture aficionados, the nostalgic, the analytical, avid travelers and more. (IMHO, the book’s strengths are its effortless prose and its wide-reaching topics.. What variety!)
I do recommend the audiobook (my first take) but suggest a physical copy if you like highlighting memorable passages. I am not much of a re-reader, but will pick this one again very soon to do just that.
I do recommend the audiobook (my first take) but suggest a physical copy if you like highlighting memorable passages. I am not much of a re-reader, but will pick this one again very soon to do just that.
theres_claire's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.0
literarianist's review against another edition
4.0
“In the real world we often want our judgments and moral decisions to be swift and singular and decisive. Fiction messes with our sense of what it is possible to do with our judgments. It usefully suspends our great and violent desire to be right on every question, and creates an unholy and ungovernable mix of the true and the false. It's the place where things are true and not true simultaneously: the ultimate impossibility. I think great novels free us into an understanding that the tension between true/not true might in fact be livable, might not have to be judged and immediately neutralized in the court of public opinion or in the oppressive conservatism of our social lives. A novel is fundamentally without real-world consequences, or so we think as we read them, and we can be bold in the spaces they create, braver, more able to tolerate our own uncertainties.”
——
Part I: In the World
Northwest London Blues – 3.5/5
Elegy for a Country’s Season – 3/5
Fences: A Brexit Diary – 4/5
On Optimism and Despair – 5/5
Part II: In the Audience
Generation Why? – 5/5
The House That Hova Built – 5/5
Brother from Another Mother – 5/5
Some Notes on Attunement – 5/5
Windows on the Will: Anomalisa – 4/5
Dance Lessons for Writers – 3/5
Part III: In the Gallery
Killing Orson Welles at Midnight – 4/5
Flaming June – 4/5
“Crazy They Call Me”: On Looking at Jerry Dantzic’s Photos of Billie Holiday – 4/5
Alte Frau by Balthasar Denner – 5/5
Mark Bradford’s Niagara – 3/5
A Bird of Few Words: Narrative Mysteries in the Paintings of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye – 4/5
The Tattered Ruins of the Map: On Sarah Sze’s Centrifuge – 2/5
Getting In and Out – 5/5
Part IV: On the Bookshelf
Crash by J.G. Ballard – 2.5/5
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi – 3/5
Notes on NW – 4/5
The Harper’s Columns – 4/5
The I Who is Not Me – 5/5
Part V: Feel Free
Life-Writing – 5/5
The Bathroom – 5/5
Man Versus Corpse – 4/5
Meet Justin Bieber! – 3.5/5
Love in the Gardens – 5/5
The Shadow of Ideas – 5/5
Find Your Beach – 4/5
Joy – 4/5
——
Part I: In the World
Northwest London Blues – 3.5/5
Elegy for a Country’s Season – 3/5
Fences: A Brexit Diary – 4/5
On Optimism and Despair – 5/5
Part II: In the Audience
Generation Why? – 5/5
The House That Hova Built – 5/5
Brother from Another Mother – 5/5
Some Notes on Attunement – 5/5
Windows on the Will: Anomalisa – 4/5
Dance Lessons for Writers – 3/5
Part III: In the Gallery
Killing Orson Welles at Midnight – 4/5
Flaming June – 4/5
“Crazy They Call Me”: On Looking at Jerry Dantzic’s Photos of Billie Holiday – 4/5
Alte Frau by Balthasar Denner – 5/5
Mark Bradford’s Niagara – 3/5
A Bird of Few Words: Narrative Mysteries in the Paintings of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye – 4/5
The Tattered Ruins of the Map: On Sarah Sze’s Centrifuge – 2/5
Getting In and Out – 5/5
Part IV: On the Bookshelf
Crash by J.G. Ballard – 2.5/5
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi – 3/5
Notes on NW – 4/5
The Harper’s Columns – 4/5
The I Who is Not Me – 5/5
Part V: Feel Free
Life-Writing – 5/5
The Bathroom – 5/5
Man Versus Corpse – 4/5
Meet Justin Bieber! – 3.5/5
Love in the Gardens – 5/5
The Shadow of Ideas – 5/5
Find Your Beach – 4/5
Joy – 4/5
alber263's review against another edition
3.0
Some essays are great, others not so much.
Beautifully written.
Might not resonate with you if you're not from the UK.
Beautifully written.
Might not resonate with you if you're not from the UK.
spiderfelt's review against another edition
5.0
Zadie Smith is my philosopher, my urban poet; the contemporary writer who most closely echoes my world view, often describing an idea I had not fully synthesized and yet who expresses my thoughts with such perfect clarity that I am forced to exclaim ‘That’s it!’ While packaged as a collection, each of these essays provide enough food for thought that they could or should be digested one at a time, savored for the gems of insight they contain.