On beauty

By Zade Smith

I first came across Zadie Smith from the fantastic TV dramatisation of her first book, White Teeth, a bit of an epic set across decades of interesting characters; the book is no less impressive.

So, it was with eager anticipation that I asked for On Beauty for Christmas. It was a mistake. On Beauty is apparently based on Zadie's stay at a US university in 2003 and is all about successful black academic types, their misunderstandings and their troublesome teenage children.

On Beauty is Literary. It is tedious. It is turgid. None of the characters are the slightest bit interesting. The misunderstandings are painfully unfunny and drawn-out. Some of it is set in North London, amongst the litterati. At least the first 106 pages, which is as far as I got. It is of no interest whatsoever to anyone looking for an entertaining story. And apparently it won the Orange prize for fiction 2006. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


© Arjuna Krishna-Das 2007. This page last modified 7 April, 2008	Top