On Beauty

Author: Zadie Smith
Date Finished: 2/9/06

The author blurb in the jacket of this book says only this: "Zadie Smith was born in northwest London in 1975 and still lives in the area. She is the author of White Teeth and The Autograph Man."

1975. 1975! Perhaps I'm taking this a bit too personally (I was born in 1973), but I read between the (three) lines of the blurb this: "Zadie Smith is smarter than you ever will be as evidenced by the fact that in a life of just 30 years, she has already published three novels, so why don't you just delete that word processing program and spare us all. Hmm???" I mean, really. Out of 26 words to give us a sense of who wrote this book, we need to know when she was born?

Okay, I'm through with that. The fact is that On Beauty was a pretty good book. Smith tells us that she modeled the story after E.M. Forster's Howard's End (which I will be rereading in the near future) and she does a good job delivering a story about a group of people whose way of coping with the world affects what happens to them and the people they love.

After finishing the novel, I turned to the trusty Internet to read more about Smith. This article from The Guardian argues that the intellectual deconstruction of a novel may sometimes miss the point; Smith suggests here that there may need to be a language to talk about "loving" books or books that "do us some good". I see a parallel to On Beauty with this line of thinking. Smith's characters in the novel put on their armor of intelligence and analysis and then find themselves weighted down and stepping clumsily on the toes of beauty, love or loyalty. The most satisfying moments in the story for me came when the characters faced up to the inadequacies of their approach to relationships--relationships with art and literature as well as with other people.

For example, Zora, a professor's daughter in the story takes on a cause: keeping a non-student, a street poet/rapper named Carl in a poetry class at the college. She writes letters, delivers arguments to the faculty, circulates petitions and has her heart broken when she sees Carl kissing a thinner, prettier (and I must mention, as this is a crucial plot point, sluttier) girl at a campus party. Zora is a star within her college; professors and students alike admire her and are a little scared of her, but she fails in the context of a romantic relationship. In Zora's mind, her work on Carl's behalf shows her feelings and proves her worthiness; ultimately when he shows his sexual attraction for another girl, Zora loses her footing. Her prior experiences winning the admiration of others are of no use to her here; her superior intellect doesn't lessen the hurt in her heart.


Almost One Month Later

I'm finally finishing and posting this, since February 9th when I finished the book and started writing about it, we've moved, rented out our old house and I've spent approximately sixteen bazillion hours fretting about the state of our lives. None of these things have given me any further insight into this book, so in short, I liked it on an intellectual level and an emotional level. Smith is a fine craftswoman of the novel and I will read more by her.