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Loading... ON BEAUTYby Zadie Smith
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This was a fun book to read. I enjoyed the story line and the characters, and the story progressed pretty well without getting stale or boring. (  ) lemontwist | Dec 23, 2009 |  Totally predictable plot written in dull, ordinary language. Very vague characters, for example: if Kiki is so "unique", show it to the reader somehow, don't just keep saying it on every page she appears, to me she was just one fat, middle-aged woman who had all her life worried about her appearance and now has begun to worry about extinguishing her husband's love with her extra weight. None of the characters evolves with the story, nor do they seem realise anything significant about themselves and the world surrounding them (no, the fact, that Howard realises he still loves Kiki or the fact that Carl realises university is not a place for him, count for nothing). And I doubt the book is supposed to be about the insignificance of life - or if it is, nothing is saved and it is still Waste of Time and totally insignificant to my life. (  ) Lady_Lazarus | Dec 9, 2009 | This is a book that has stayed with me following as it does Forster’s 'Howard’s End' right from the opening yet at the same time being so different. It’s energetic and has phrases that lift you. ‘On beauty’ apparently refers to an essay that says that beautiful things get copied and in this way it is what she is doing with Forster’s book it clearly goes further than that with all its references to beauty. It’s a book which I think will be just as enjoyable a second time as its theme emerges further– apart from it being a reworking of Forster’s theme in contemporary America with black and Haitian people thrown in to broaden the war of the classes and the conflict between the liberal and conservative that’s in Forster’s book. (  ) evening | Nov 30, 2009 | A searing academic satire, as well as a wholly 21st century racial/political comedy of manners. Like in White Teeth, Zadie Smith again proves her pitch-perfect ear for dialogue across all cultures. Not quite as laugh-out-loud funny as White Teeth, but very clever. Overall, it's a far more sedate book and has less spark than her first novel. And yet it still gets 5 stars, so what does that say about White Teeth? (  ) RachelWeaver | Nov 20, 2009 | A well-written and nicely structured glimpse into two academic families. Entertaining and intelligent. ( ) checkadawson | Nov 3, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (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 Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:08 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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