What I'm Reading: 'Changing My Mind' by Zadie Smith

I've said it before -- I prefer Zadie Smith's essays and non-fiction to her novels. The fact that anyone even needs to make the distinction is pretty significant. In other words, she is such an incredibly talented writer that she produces both fiction and non-fiction that is very much worth your time. And if I had to recommend only one Zadie Smith book to someone, it would still be White Teeth, a novel everyone should read.

Part of what attracts me to her non-fiction though, is that Zadie Smith is one of the coolest women in the literary world today. She's friends with Lena Dunham and profiles celebrities like Jay-Z, and her non-fiction reflects the reality of being a mother and an English professor in New York City so much more than her fiction does. It seems like her fiction is largely preoccupied with the world of her younger self. Zadie Smith as an adult today would never be the type of character to appear in a Zadie Smith novel, so in a way I guess I'm responding positively to her more than to her work. Either way, I'm really enjoying ambling through this book of her essays.

#ReadWomen2014: Zadie Smith

Because I posted about White Teeth earlier in the week, I figured it was a great time to recommend Zadie Smith for #ReadWomen2014, despite my own admitted ambivalence about her.  Maybe ‘ambivalence’ is too strong a term-- I really have enjoyed White Teeth quite a lot, but there have certainly been passages that have dragged along, despite the deftness and wit of the prose. I think what I struggled with in both White Teeth and NW was an inconsistency in my response- I was gripped so much more by certain characters and their passages than others.  If White Teeth had been entirely from Irie’s perspective, for example, or NW from Natalie’s, I think I would have engaged with them more fully. Even so, I would strongly recommend either title, and have every intention of reading On Beauty soon. Part of the reason I recommend her so strongly is that I don’t think it’s possible to be a literate young woman in the US today without having read Zadie Smith. She is so ubiquitous and serves as a cultural touchstone -- she gets brief shout-outs on HBO’s ‘Girls’ and ‘Bored to Death,’ two comedy series about writers in NYC. Her essays deserve as much attention as her novels, and any fan of her would do well to subscribe to the New Yorker to enjoy a fuller breadth of her work.

Shelf Hues: Orange (is the new black)

This week, in honor of the June 6 premiere of Season 2 of Netflix's 'Orange is the New Black,' I put together some of my orange reading material.

What I'm Reading: 'White Teeth' by Zadie Smith

I broke my own rule regarding an author’s chronology by reading NW by Zadie Smith immediately upon its release, instead of backtracking to White Teeth and On Beauty. Afterward, many Zadie Smith fans told me I had made a mistake, and shouldn’t let NW dictate my impressions of her.  Although it received very mixed reviews, I enjoyed NW; it didn’t make an enormous impression on me, but there were certain elements of it that I absolutely loved, and most importantly, and whetted my appetite for more Zadie Smith fiction.  And as a New Yorker devotee, I have always loved her essays, and am looking forward to finally reading some of her published essay collections in the coming months.

Much like NW, White Teeth explores the intertwining lives of Londoners, particularly in regard to their immigrant experiences.  I found that the chapters devoted to Irie, the daughter of a British father and Jamaican mother, really came alive most for me, and I wonder if this has anything to do with the obvious similarities between Irie and Zadie Smith herself.  Even so, I’m still finding myself in this weird Zadie Smith limbo; I like her writing, but I’m not losing my mind over her, which seems to be the most popular reaction among women my age.  She certainly has incredible style and charisma, and she’s one of those enviable young female writers who is heaped with praise at a very young age (see also: Tea Obrecht, Karen Russell, Chimamanda Ngzogi Adichie and a few dozen more; come to think of it, this might warrant its own post).  Objectively, I can tell it’s good writing, and I certainly want to keep reading more of her work, but I’m just not as overwhelmed by her as so many others seem to be.  Am I missing something, or are there others out there?