Zadie Smith – On Beauty #inbetweeny

This has been sat on my bookshelf for aaaaages without me really wanting to read it. I can't remember how exactly it ended up on my shelf, perhaps a random book present from hubby (he's produced some good ones – The Testament Gideon Mack, The Giles Wareing Haters Club) but I know I wouldn’t have picked it up and bought it if I happened to notice it in a bookshop, for no particular reason other than the blurb just didn’t hold my attention.

The book was originally published in 2005 and I remember there being a lot of fuss around this book and White Teeth, also by Smith around that time.  Nevertheless they both passed me by and On Beauty in 2017 was to be my first experience of Smith.

It was good to read a book about a family where the children were not too young to be proper characters and the adults not too old. So many times books set around families only focus on one generation, or differing generations but by skipping back in time. This was not the case here and the book felt more rounded as a result. I found I could identify with different elements of each character – Zora the daughter and her first day of university, Kiki  the mother and her wonder at how her children had grown in to adults. There were a lot of characters but you kept track of them and the differing perspectives as the narrative switched kept the book fresh.

I also really enjoyed the dynamic between the Belsay siblings- the scene in the coffee shop where Smith describes how siblings loose their closeness as soon as geography plays a part really resonated.  

I found Howard a very difficult character to like given his treatment of Kiki and yes Smith made the insinuation that his actions were, in part, as a result of Kiki's weight gain, an almost unspeakable admittance.  But in general, his intellectual arguments lost me slightly, he was very self absorbed and who doesn't allow Christmas trees in their house when you have children and it's not for religious reasons?!  The part in London where he visited his father was a key scene for me and almost showed his humanity however he then ruined it with his later actions at the funeral which were just silly on both parties counts.

There were several strong themes running throughout this book, the most predominant one being that of race – particularly demonstrated I thought by Levi (his conversation with his boss, his quest to be more 'street'). I have to be honest I haven't read a book so modern and to the point about race and it was interesting reading things, especially from Kiki's point of view - how her big breasts represented comfort and strength unlike if a white woman had big breasts connoting sex and unintelligence, brilliantly perceptive. It was interesting to see Kiki also played up to this 'big black mama' stereotype occasionally.  

Religion, class, friendship and age were all expertly touched upon without them ever seeming to hinder the storytelling, the book was warm, funny and captured me from the start. I did think the ending a bit silly with the painting and Kiki walking out however the last scene was strong and I really enjoyed reading the book as a whole, surprisingly so. It would be a good book to review for Book Club and I wish more people I know had read it so I could talk to them about it.

PS this is supposedly an homage to Howard's End which I have never read. Anyone out there who has read both able to comment?