A review by jmiae
The Autograph Man, by Zadie Smith

3.0

Zadie Smith's unusual and engaging prose was the only thing that carried me through this. The Autograph Man feels largely skeletal, more a collection of bullet pointed plot twists that never quite connect to each other than a cohesive narrative. I never quite knew where she was going with the story until suddenly I found myself in the middle of an event. Although the main thrust of the story is apparently Alex-Li's existential crisis as an autograph man, there is a plethora of other conflicts that are only briefly touched upon or, in some cases, merely hinted at, but never get fully resolved. The result was a rather unsatisfying read.

Bottom line: if you have never read anything by Zadie Smith before, don't start with this one. Whilst it is a great showcase of her abilities to write beautiful sentences and build intriguing syntax structures, the complex web of characters and conflicts introduced are only flimsily held together.