Zadie Smith was born in Northwest London in 1975 and still lives in the area. She is the author of White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, Changing My Mind, NW, and most recently Swing Time.
Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York
Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, Time, and Publishers
Weekly, A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today,
San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Denver
Post, and Publishers Weeklybestseller, A Los Angeles
Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle,
Atlantic Monthly, Newsday, Christian Science Monitor,
and Minneapolis Star Tribune Best Book of the Year, and
Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize
". . . [A] thoroughly original tale about families and generational
change, about race and multiculturalism in millennial America,
about love and identity and the ways they are affected by the
passage of time. Ms. Smith possesses a captivating authorial
voice—at once authoritative and nonchalant, and capacious enough to
accommodate high moral seriousness, laid-back humor and virtually
everything in between—and in these pages, she uses that voice to
enormous effect, giving us that rare thing: a novel that is as
affecting as it is entertaining, as provocative as it is humane."
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Oh happy day when a writer as gifted as Zadie Smith fulfills her
early promise with a novel as accomplished, substantive and
penetrating as On Beauty. It's a thing of beauty indeed. In
tackling grown-up issues of marriage, adultery, race, class,
liberalism and aesthetics, she thrillingly balances engaging ideas
with equally engaging characters. As good as she is with big ideas,
Smith is even stronger at capturing family dynamics, the heartbreak
of broken trust as well as the lovely connections between siblings.
—The Los Angeles Times Book Review
"In this sharp, engaging satire, beauty's only skin-deep, but funny
cuts to the bone." —Kirkus Reviews
"Smith's specialty is her ability to render the new world, in its
vibrant multiculturalism, with a kind of dancing, daring joy. . . .
Her plots and people sing with life. . . . One of the best of the
year, a splendid treat. " —Chicago Tribune
"On Beauty is a rollicking satire . . . a tremendously good read."
—San Francisco Chronicle
Issues of beauty in art and life indeed ruffle the surface of this splendid work from the author of White Teeth. Englishman Howard Belsey teaches art history at a small New England college called Wellington; brisk daughter Zora wants to study with the celebrity poet on faculty, who is more than casually acquainted with Howard; and sensitive son Jerome's idea of healing a family rift is to take everyone to a performance of Mozart's requiem. Even rebellious Levi raps away; and Kiki, Howard's African American wife, once an activist, is now hugely overweight and struggling with her sense of self. But perhaps an even better title would have been "On Love," because it is the ties binding this family-and those coming apart-that really matter. Central to the action is both Howard's unfortunate fling and Jerome's summer adventure in London, when he falls briefly in love with the daughter of arch-conservative Trinidadian Monty Kipps, whom Howard regards as an enemy. When Monty ends up at Wellington that fall, the family map gets remade. With fully realized characters and a kaleidoscope of provocative issues, Smith has created a world you can truly enter. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/05.]-Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Adult/High School-A hilarious comedy of manners in the tradition of Austen, Wharton, and Forster, to whom the author pays homage. She tackles class, race, and gender with acerbic wit and a wise eye for the complexities of modern life, in a 21st-century update of Howard's End. Beauty opens as hapless art historian Howard Belsey, a transplanted Englishman married to an African-American woman, returns to London to prevent his son from marrying the daughter of his academic rival, Monty Kipps. Jerome has fallen in love not just with Victoria, but with the entire family, whose Trinidadian, right-wing roots are a sharp contrast to the freewheeling liberalism of his own family. In the meantime, Belsey's other children, social activist Zora and Levi, who speaks only street slang and fancies himself from the 'hood, are each seeking the commitments and identities that will define their own lives. What results is a vivid portrait of marriage, family, the conflict between the political and the personal, and people's eternal affinity for self-deception. Teens will enjoy this romp through the labyrinth of relationships that help a family mature and find its beautiful moments.-Pat Bangs, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York
Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, Time, and
Publishers Weekly, A New York Times, Wall Street Journal,
USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Boston
Globe, Denver Post, and Publishers Weeklybestseller, A
Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco
Chronicle, Atlantic Monthly, Newsday, Christian Science
Monitor, and Minneapolis Star Tribune Best Book of the
Year, and Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize
". . . [A] thoroughly original tale about families and generational
change, about race and multiculturalism in millennial America,
about love and identity and the ways they are affected by the
passage of time. Ms. Smith possesses a captivating authorial
voice-at once authoritative and nonchalant, and capacious enough to
accommodate high moral seriousness, laid-back humor and virtually
everything in between-and in these pages, she uses that voice to
enormous effect, giving us that rare thing: a novel that is as
affecting as it is entertaining, as provocative as it is humane."
-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Oh happy day when a writer as gifted as Zadie Smith
fulfills her early promise with a novel as accomplished,
substantive and penetrating as On Beauty. It's a thing of
beauty indeed. In tackling grown-up issues of marriage, adultery,
race, class, liberalism and aesthetics, she thrillingly balances
engaging ideas with equally engaging characters. As good as she is
with big ideas, Smith is even stronger at capturing family
dynamics, the heartbreak of broken trust as well as the lovely
connections between siblings. -The Los Angeles Times Book
Review
"In this sharp, engaging satire, beauty's only skin-deep,
but funny cuts to the bone." -Kirkus Reviews
"Smith's specialty is her ability to render the new world,
in its vibrant multiculturalism, with a kind of dancing, daring
joy. . . . Her plots and people sing with life. . . . One of the
best of the year, a splendid treat. " -Chicago Tribune
"On Beauty is a rollicking satire . . . a
tremendously good read." -San Francisco Chronicle
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