Reviews with content warning for Slavery - The Fraud

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

8 reviews

knkoch's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I confess myself disappointed. I was looking forward to this one because I’ve heard great things, but even more, heard that this was Zadie Smith’s nineteenth century novel acting as a sort of movie rebuttal to Charles Dickens. I’ve seen articles where she critiques his excess sentimentality, and discusses her choice to make Dickens a character in her book. I’m rather fond of Dickens’ work, and while that likely gives me some bias, I came to this with an open mind ready to hear her counterpoint.

The Fraud is laid out in very short chapters spread across many ‘volumes’ within the book, likely to echo the serialization that Dickens and other authors of his time employed to release their books piecemeal to their readers in monthly periodicals. The short (1-3 page) chapters made it very easy to keep reading, but the overall structure of the book felt difficult to follow. The narrative jumps back and forth constantly between the 1830s and 1870s, following MC Eliza in her life as housekeeper to her author cousin W. Harrison Ainsworth. I could see Smith was layering multiple meanings on the idea of frauds, which remains interesting, but the plot didn’t have a strong arc for me. Some of the ‘mysteries’ seeming pretty unmysterious fairly early on, or strangely buried and unresolved.

And so, falling back on the characters, I was further disappointed. Only about 4-5 had true depth and empathy, with most of the secondary characters painted as caricatures. They were stupid, loud, drunken, or, especially, fat. There was a disconcerting amount of fatphobia, with fatness made to be an indicator of negative or immoral qualities in multiple characters. The amount of poking and sneering at fat characters here was on the level of JK Rowling’s treatment of the Dursleys in HP. I’ve been noticing this way more in writing lately and I just hate when authors do this. Maybe it was meant to indicate the MC’s judgmental view of others, but it was a bummer to read over and over.

Dickens wrote characters with shades of these and other negative qualities, but almost always with some warmth or humor and rarely with the sort of predetermined judgement Smith did here. You wouldn’t want to borrow money, overly rely on, or move in with some Dickens characters, but few come off so distinctly unpleasant and devoid of charm as many characters in The Fraud.

I do appreciate that Smith built a story on race, slavery, the sugar trade, and money. Race in particular is not a subject I’ve yet to come across in Dicken’s work, and certainly his disinterest or plain unacknowledgment does not mean racism and Britain’s imperial role in the slave trade didn’t exist. I appreciate that Smith interrogates the British colonial impact on Jamaica and living conditions for enslaved and affected people of color at this time of British history. It’s a story worth investigating and illuminating. I just wish the novel had spent more time in that zone. Much more of it seemed to be about lampooning the triviality of the white literary scene of the time which, sure, easy pickings, but was not necessarily compelling or connected to the colonialism sections.

I am not so very interested in Dickens the man. I’ve no doubt his flaws and biases run deep, but I’m not interested in lionizing his character. I’m interested in how his work makes me feel, flayed and alive to the enormity of life. His work lived far beyond him, impacting not only his own world but echoing on through the decades. His stories, though they’re set in 1800s Britain, metaphorically and thematically remind me of the time I live in now, and the people I’ve met. The struggles his characters underwent can still occur in new forms, as Barbara Kingsolver so recently demonstrated in Demon Copperhead. The Fraud wasn’t terrible, though I would be very interested to discuss this book with someone for whom it resonated with more. The bleak characters and less than clear message wearied rather than stimulated me.

Content Warnings

kirstym25's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content Warnings

happyknitter2020's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Enjoyed Zadie reading this on audio, but the focus of the story re fraud presentation was too much focused. I would have thought that the culture & how people were treated is much more important.

Content Warnings

muffmacguff's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I enjoyed this so much! It felt like a classic Zadie Smith novel that just happened to take place in the 19th century. Very thoughtful, challenging, and often funny. I loved seeing this world through Eliza’s eyes.

Content Warnings