- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd; First Edition edition (4 Jun 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0241142938
- ISBN-13: 978-0241142936
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 272,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Howard Belsey, a Rembrandt scholar who doesn't like Rembrandt, is an Englishman abroad and a long-suffering Professor at Wellington College. He has been married for thirty years to Kiki, an American woman who no longer resembles the sexy activist she once was. Their three children passionately pursue their own paths, and faced with the oppressive enthusiasms of his children, Howard feels that the first two acts of his life are over and he has no clear plans for the finale. Then Jerome, Howard's oldest son, falls for Victoria, the stunning daughter of the right-wing icon Monty Kipps. Increasingly, the two families find themselves thrown together in a beautiful corner of America, enacting a cultural and personal war against the background of real wars that they barely register...
About the Author
Zadie Smith was born in north-west London in 1975 and still lives in the area. She is the author of WHITE TEETH and THE AUTOGRAPH MAN.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant or Dull?,
By
This review is from: On Beauty (Hardcover)
Seems as though those who read it find it a wonderful, accomplished and satisfying read, or just rather dull. I am in the middle. Whilst "On Beauty" said "quality" in many ways, I could have put it down at any point and not given a second thought to the fate of any charachter.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed but very good,
By
This review is from: On Beauty (Hardcover)
I haven't read her other two novels. I sort of avoided White Teeth because it was a 'trendy' read but I picked this up and found it satisfying intellectually and also a pretty good read. I cared about many of the characters in the book although didn't like them all - this may sound trite but to get something out of a novel you have to feel engaged with the characters in some way. Also Zadie Smith has humour, something I wasn't expecting to get. The issues of race in the book were tackled with intelligence and insight and also from a variety of perspectives which was really refreshing. There was no 'woe is me' PCness to the book which was a huge relief, just a clear tackling of where each character stood or was trying to stand, in many cases imperfectly. It showed how people's politics personal and otherwise are fragile and constantly evolving. I think it's flawed because sometimes the narrative thread and the perspectives of some of the characters slightly unravelled in places. Also I felt uncomfortable with the scenes directly lifted from Forster's Howards End, even though they were an honourable tribute, they didn't work for me, possibly because you could so clearly see where they came from. This is an ambitious novel, well-written and well worth the time taken to read it and I would say that Zadie Smith's masterpiece is in the future but it is out there and on it's way.
30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed,
By Dr Sticky (Nottingham United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: On Beauty (Hardcover)
I'm not trying to be controversial - maybe I just don't get it. Connect? If only. Smith has inevitably posited herself for comparison with E M Forster and, in comparison, this book falls short. Although there are some snatches of exquisite prose, I found the characters one-dimensional at best and caricatures at worst. Smith seems to be riffing on elements of her life experience - academia, youth, residence in the USA - rather than competently addressing overarching themes of race, culture, love and gender which bubble around in this melting pot of a story but don't come together to make a great novel this time. I have to say, however, I wasn't a big fan of Smith's first two works so I'm not sure how this qualifies me as a reviewer. Clearly popular opinion and Booker judges have found something else in the book so hopefully other readers will too.
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