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Loading... On Beauty (original 2005; edition 2006)by Zadie Smith
Work detailsOn Beauty by Zadie Smith (2005)
1   lahochstetler | Jun 12, 2013 |  On the surface, On Beauty is about two families, the Belseys and the Kips. Both are academic families with the fathers holding positions as professors - Howard Belsey at a Boston college and Monty Kip in the UK. Not only do they differ in their opinions of art, they are radically opposed on the political spectrum with Monty holding up the views of a religious right-wing conservative and Belsey playing the role of the liberal academic. The characters in this book are diverse and complex and the issues covered are equally broad. Although the plot mostly revolves around marital fidelity, the book raises many questions about race and policies like affirmative action and the cultural divide between the ultra-religious and the liberal intelligentsia. Definitely a book that had me thinking about race and the loss of identity experienced in interracial marriage. My major complaint about this book is that it covers too many issues and seemed to lack cohesion or finality. But maybe the messy indeterminate ending is appropriate for our crazy and diverse society. (  ) jmoncton | Jun 3, 2013 | I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the characters, the prose, the bulldozer rembrandt analysis, the strange, suffocating non-sequiters, the feeling of being in the hands of someone so sure she is not wrong. I enjoyed the academic setting, the bent attention to race and class, the discomfort present in each chapter. It was a good experience. (  ) usefuljack | May 17, 2013 | I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the characters, the prose, the bulldozer rembrandt analysis, the strange, suffocating non-sequiters, the feeling of being in the hands of someone so sure she is not wrong. I enjoyed the academic setting, the bent attention to race and class, the discomfort present in each chapter. It was a good experience. ( ) usefuljack | May 17, 2013 | I had a hard time getting into this book at first, mostly because of the elliptical way the characters talk to each other. Either the writer mellowed out, or I got used to her style, because the book began to work for me, and I ended up enjoying it very much. It’s the story of an art professor and his family in a New England university town. Theirs is an interracial marriage in a mostly all-white environment, and this is an underlying theme, treated with subtlety. The professor’s strict academic rejection of popular taste is another theme, and all the characters bounce off of it to some degree. Some of the characters are not quite realized, but the professor and his wife, Kiki, are both very richly drawn. Kiki is especially beautiful and fascinating, and she’s a good foil for her rather fatuous husband, her rigidly ambitious daughter, and her two sons. Both sons are looking for some source of hope, one through religion and one through street politics. Kiki, meanwhile, is all about living fully in an environment that keeps buttoning everyone up. (  ) astrologerjenny | Apr 24, 2013 | no reviews | add a review Is a retelling of
 Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0143037749, Paperback)In an author's note at the end of On Beauty, Zadie Smith writes: "My largest structural debt should be obvious to any E.M. Forster fan; suffice it to say he gave me a classy old frame, which I covered with new material as best I could." If it is true that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Forster, perched on a cloud somewhere, should be all puffed up with pride. His disciple has taken Howards End, that marvelous tale of class difference, and upped the ante by adding race, politics, and gender. The end result is a story for the 21st century, told with a perfect ear for everything: gangsta street talk; academic posturing, both British and American; down-home black Floridian straight talk; and sassy, profane kids, both black and white.Howard Belsey is a middle-class white liberal Englishman teaching abroad at Wellington, a thinly disguised version of one of the Ivies. He is a Rembrandt scholar who can't finish his book and a recent adulterer whose marriage is now on the slippery slope to disaster. His wife, Kiki, a black Floridian, is a warm, generous, competent wife, mother, and medical worker. Their children are Jerome, disgusted by his father's behavior, Zora, Wellington sophomore firebrand feminist and Levi, eager to be taken for a "homey," complete with baggy pants, hoodies and the ever-present iPod. This family has no secrets--at least not for long. They talk about everything, appropriate to the occasion or not. And, there is plenty to talk about. The other half of the story is that of the Kipps family: Monty, stiff, wealthy ultra-conservative vocal Christian and Rembrandt scholar, whose book has been published. His wife Carlene is always slightly out of focus, and that's the way she wants it. She wafts over all proceedings, never really connecting with anyone. That seems to be endemic in the Kipps household. Son Michael is a bit of a Monty clone and daughter Victoria is not at all what Daddy thinks she is. Indeed, Forster's advice, "Only connect," is lost on this group. The two academics have long been rivals, detesting each other's politics and disagreeing about Rembrandt. They are thrown into further conflict when Jerome leaves Wellington to get away from the discovery of his father's affair, lands on the Kipps' doorstep, falls for Victoria and mistakes what he has going with her for love. Howard makes it worse by trying to fix it. Then, Kipps is granted a visiting professorship at Wellington and the whole family arrives in Massachusetts. From this raw material, Smith has fashioned a superb book, her best to date. She has interwoven class, race, and gender and taken everyone prisoner. Her even-handed renditions of liberal and/or conservative mouthings are insightful, often hilarious, and damning to all. She has a great time exposing everyone's clay feet. This author is a young woman cynical beyond her years, and we are all richer for it. --Valerie Ryan (retrieved from Amazon Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:31:34 -0500) Struggling with a stale marriage and the misguided passions of his three adult children, art professor Howard Belsey finds his family life thrown into turmoil by his son's engagement to the socially prominent daughter of a right-wing icon. (summary from another edition) |
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I enjoyed the academic setting of this book, and absurdities of that world, which Smith details well. There were many times during the book when I simply wanted to hit Howard. I learned that I have very little tolerance for the weak-male mid-life crisis. I also occasionally wanted to smack Zora, who has a tendency towards the obnoxious. So, the characters are not exactly likable, hardly so. It says something that despite that I enjoyed this book very much. (