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NW [Kindle Edition]

Zadie Smith (Author)

3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)

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Length: 417 pages (Contains Real Page Numbers)
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Product Description

NW is Zadie Smith's masterful novel about London life.

Zadie Smith's brilliant tragi-comic NW follows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan - after they've left their childhood council estate, grown up and moved on to different lives. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their city is brutal, beautiful and complicated. Yet after a chance encounter they each find that the choices they've made, the people they once were and are now, can suddenly, rapidly unravel. A portrait of modern urban life, NW is funny, sad and urgent - as brimming with vitality as the city itself.

Praise for NW:

'Her dialogue sings and soars; terse, packed and sassy. Smith is simply wonderful: Dickens's legitimate daughter' Boyd Tonkin, Independent

'Astonishing, dazzling. Really - without exaggeration - not since Dickens has there been a better observer of London scenes. Zadie Smith is a genius. It's hard to imagine a better novel this year - or this decade' A.N. Wilson

'Intensely funny, richly varied, always unexpected. A joyous, optimistic, angry masterpiece. No better English novel will be published this year' Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph

'Absolutely brilliant. So electrically authentic' TIME

'Captivating. Funny, sexy, weird, full of acute social comedy, like London. She's up there with the best around' Evening Standard

'Marvellous . . . crackles with reflections on race, music and migration. A lyrical fiction for our times' Spectator

'Undeniably brilliant . . . rush out and buy this book' Observer

Zadie Smith was born in north-west London in 1975. She is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man and On Beauty, and of a collection of essays, Changing My Mind. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People.

About the Author

Zadie Smith was born in north-west London in 1975, and still lives in the area. She is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man and On Beauty, and of a collection of essays, Changing My Mind. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People.

Product details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 549 KB
Print Length: 417 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1594203970
Publisher: Penguin (6 Sep 2012)
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.� r.l.
Language: English
ASIN: B008LUVOJC
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray: Enabled

Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #444 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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3.3 out of 5 stars

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 62 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars An Exercise in Style 3 Sep 2012

By S Kemp

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

NW is a brave departure for Zadie Smith and one that could potentially alienate a large proportion of her readership. It is an odd and fragmentary novel, humourless and bland. The melodious prose and multiple plots have given way to a modish Modernism; Dickens's influence has been erased, the 'hysterical realism' utterly subdued. But that is to be expected. Novelists do not have to keep rehashing a working formula, and it says something of Smith's integrity that she has decided to move on. The new style, then, is encapsulated in the narrative's stuttering and spare composition, a complete reversal of the seamless unity of her last three novels.

The novel follows a group of thirtysomethings from the same Caldwell council estate, Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan. Each character carries the burden of urban ennui: Leah is in the midst of an existential crisis, her closest friend Natalie (formerly Keisha) a class-conscious barrister seeking some excitement; Felix, however, is a wide boy recovering alcoholic similar to Nathan, who simply shuffles through the pages as a homeless junky. All the usual themes are accounted for (identity, class, race, drugs, love, work, death, guilt, redemption), but as Smith's interest in each character is asymmetrical, it makes the book unbalanced. It flows best as a procession of snapshots replicating the random movements of a city. But, to follow Smith down this structural and experimental route, the characters must be interesting, and sadly they are not.

The depth just isn't there, each one barely knowable. Instead of total characterisation, there are only pointed and evocative shards, the broken bottle approach leaving the process of reassembly in the reader's hands. Such, though, is the way with Modernism.... Read more ›

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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My first Zadie Smith, but not my last! 2 Sep 2012

By lilysmum VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I haven't read White Teeth or The Autograph Man, but when I read the first chapters of NW in the Guardian, I was gripped and had to buy it to find out what happens next. In the first couple of chapters Leah hears a knock on her front door as she is lying on a hammock in the oppressive heat in her rented flat's back garden. The woman at the door is someone Leah remembers going to school with; however, their lives have turned out quite differently. Leah is kind to the woman, Shar, but later comes to regret her act of generosity.

Leah is married to a guy called Michel, who wants them to start a family. A lot of the early chapters explore Leah's feelings of disappointment with how her life has turned out. She and Michel are friends with a barrister (the only one from their school to have been successful with her career) and a banker, and there are some beautifully observed passages about the dinner parties that Leah goes to with them.

The book is told from multiple narrators' points of view and later sections are narrated by Felix, Nathan, (who is linked to early events) and Natalie, the barrister. I enjoyed Natalie's section the best, though the final page of Felix's story is absolutely superbly written, I thought. Natalie's section is told in the form of little vignettes from her life. I found this absorbing - it was a bit like thinking back through a collection of memories.

The use of typesetting reminded me of Laurence Stern's Tristram Shandy at times - for example, on page 24 the words take the shape of an apple tree, and on page 49 the words represent bundles of leaflets being pushed through Shar's letter box.

There are a couple of things that puzzle me.... Read more ›

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30 of 36 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars 'NW' takes us to nowhere 30 Sep 2012

By ArtsEater

Format:Hardcover

Modernism is fashionable again. First we had Will Self's 'Umbrella' and now we have Zadie Smith's 'NW'. Both novels use modernist techniques such as stream of consciousness and multiple narratives. Both are set in and around north London. But whereas Self's novel is largely set in the north London suburbs of Barnet, Muswell Hill and East Finchley, Smith's 'NW' moves the dial anti-clockwise and is set in north-west London. Or to be more precise, Willesden. But is 'NW' north west London - or is it 'Nowhere'? A play on 16th century statesman and author Thomas More's famous book about Nowhere - 'Utopia'? If it is, then Smith's utopia is more of a dystopia. Willesden is less the land of milk and honey and more the place of skunk and money. As in many London towns, deprivation lives on the next street to wealth.

The novel revolves around a long friendship: 30-something Natalie (once Keisha) Blake is a successful barrister with two young children from her marriage to handsome banker, Frank. Leah Hanwell, a philosophy graduate, works for a non-profit organisation and lives in a council flat with her Franco-African partner Michel - a man intent on making money through share trading over the Internet. Both Natalie and Leah grew up on the same Caldwell council estate in Willesden. An estate which may well have been responsible for Leah's interest in philosophy since each block is named after an icon of the subject: Smith, Hobbes, Bentham, Locke, Russell. The girls' friendship therefore goes way back, but when we first meet them Leah is irritated by Natalie's social and professional ascendancy as well as her well-attended dinner parties. Natalie has climbed the social ladder whilst Leah has remained pretty much on the first rung. And friction ensues....

Felix Cooper is another character in the book. But unlike Nathan Bogle who both girls knew at school, Felix is someone neither Leah or Natalie know. Their connection is only one of place - they lived on the same estate as youngsters. Felix's story, tragically cut short, is one of a struggle to overcome the troubles of his past and to try and do better.

The novel is split into 5 sections: 'visitation'; 'guest'; 'host'; 'crossing'; 'visitation'. Each section focuses on either one or two characters: 'visitation' focuses on Leah Hanwell; 'guest' focuses on Felix Cooper; 'host' on Natalie; 'crossing' on Natalie and Nathan Bogle; and 'visitation' on Leah and Natalie. Natalie therefore gets more space than the other characters - so the novel is uneven in this respect. And this is a problem: Natalie is simply not interesting enough. Smith acknowledges that Natalie is a cliche and she plays on this - but this doesn't help to make her any more compelling for the reader. It's boringly predictable that her seemingly successful marriage to the wealthy Frank is in fact 'a double act [where both of them] only speak to each other when they are on stage' (p.224). It's even more predictable that Natalie goes off in search of sexual adventures during what is plainly a stock-standard mid-life crisis. In contrast, Felix is a far more engaging character - but his time in the limelight is over all too quickly.

By far the best chapter is 'guest'. It focuses on Felix and the narrative fizzes along because he is simply more interesting than either Leah or Natalie. A recovering addict, Felix is trying hard to put his life back together and we first meet him happily clowning around in bed with his beloved girlfriend, Grace. But old habits die hard when Felix pays what is to be his final visit to his old flame, Annie. A 40-something, bohemian from a privileged background, Annie lives in run-down rooftop flat in Soho. Felix is determined to amicably and dispassionately end his affair with Annie so that he can devote his life to Grace. But the sight of Annie's naked body reclining in the sun on a late August afternoon is too much for him to resist...

The passages featuring Annie and Felix are devastatingly good. They sparkle with brilliance.

The chapter titled 'host' is made up of 185 numbered sections which provide a chronological narrative of Natalie's life from childhood to adulthood. Each sub-section is numbered because Natalie's life follows a predictable pattern: school; university; professional career, marriage; house; children. Her choices in life have been made with the motto 'safety first' firmly in mind. Hers is a portrait painted by numbers. As a consequence, she lacks any imagination 'due to a long process of neglect' (p.266). She is therefore a young woman who is simply one big cliche. At a charity event for a group of young black women, Natalie's speech is cliche-ridden. 'And it was only by refusing to set myself artificial limits,' explained Natalie Blake... 'that I was able to reach my full potential' (p.253)

It's only when Natalie steps off the conveyor belt that is her predictable middle class life and walks out on her husband and children that the numbered sections cease. The chapter which immediately follows Natalie's desertion - 'crossing' - describes her as having 'no name, no biography, no characteristics' (p.264). She sloughs off her respectable, middle class persona (for just the one night, mind you) and returns to the stomping ground of her youth. On the way, she bumps into her old school friend, Nathan. Unlike Natalie, Nathan has failed to move up and out of the council estate of his childhood. Smoking crack, Natalie becomes her former self: Keisha. Both she and Nathan wander aimlessly around north west London throughout the night. Smith is obviously returning Natalie/Keisha back to her roots. She's a young woman in a crisis in need of reality check. But this whole section simply doesn't work. Natalie has been carefully and methodically built up as someone who has studied hard to become an outwardly successful, image conscious, 30-something. So for her to suddenly reinhabit her teenage self and wander around London's dark streets with drug-addicted Nathan and smoking crack simply doesn't ring true.

Smith's comments on life in a modern, urban society as well as her philosophical insights are often perceptive and funny. Avoiding political engagement, 'only the private realm existed now [for the middle classes]. Work and home. Marriage and children. Now they only want to return to their own flats and live the real life of domestic conversation and television and baths and lunch and dinner' (p.221). Visiting a busy Italian beach on her honeymoon, Natalie notes how there are 'more bodies than sand' (p.204). Happiness is described as not being 'an absolute value. It is a state of comparison' (p.220). An article in a free newspaper is 'about an actress walking her dog in a park.' (p.41). And when Natalie attempts to have a threesome with two young Internet porn addicts, one of the boys (Dinesh) parrots lines from porn films 'All night long, baby. Till you're gonna be begging me to stop. Til six in the morning.' The riposte from his friend is hilarious: 'Dinesh, man, I gotta be at work at eight' (p.258).

What is also noteworthy in 'NW' is Smith's raising a subject that is all too rarely mentioned in novels or, more widely, the media: women who don't want to have children. So rare is it to find it being discussed that one reviewer of 'NW' referred to it as a 'taboo subject'. Leah enjoys sex, but 'fears the destination' that screwing Michel will take her to. She doesn't want to have children ostensibly because she is happy with her lot in life and 'any change risks fatally upsetting this balance' (p. 22). It's only in the 'NW's final pages that Michel discovers Leah's deception: she has been taking contraceptive pills to prevent the pregnancy he so desires. Leah's decision to not have children therefore largely remains a private one; its impact on those around her is never given room to be more fully explored.

Yet for all its periodic sparkling dialogue, perceptive insights, and raising of taboos, 'NW' fails to hang together as a novel. Is it because the novel is more an exercise in style(s) over content? Is it because the most interesting characters - Felix and Annie - are given so little 'stage time'? Is it because the novel is unbalanced - with the predictable Natalie getting the lion's share of the novel's 294 pages? Is it because the narrative doesn't flow (the chapter featuring Felix is a compelling novella sitting uncomfortably within a broader novel). It's probably all of these. So I can't understand why Smith regards this novel as her 'favourite by a long, long way'. It certainly isn't mine. At times, 'NW' sparkles and fizzes with brio, but the narrative takes us to NW - to nowhere. Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A London Winner!

Enthralling, absorbing tale of North London life. The experimental bits take a bit of getting used to, but it's worth the effort.

Published 7 days ago by Lollardo

5.0 out of 5 stars ordered it and then was given the book as a present so.....

Gave my copy to a good friend have yet to hear if they have read it.. I have read mine and it did not disapoint.

Published 8 days ago by V. Keeping

4.0 out of 5 stars Complex range of characters

Characters are complex although they all start to link perhaps better reading all at once rather than a bit at a time. Read more

Published 10 days ago by Pauline Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars Clever, clipped, fragmented

A disjointed, partial glimpse of life in inner city London, where the style perfectly reflects the themes. Read more

Published 1 month ago by E Webb

3.0 out of 5 stars Sorry

Just too jumpy for me so was confusing. I don't mind confused but too much is tiresome. That' s all.

Published 1 month ago by Mrs Margaret Russell

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and dull

An uncomfortable, edgy style with short, incomplete sentences scattered with 'nah', 'bruv' and 'gonna ', was bound to create a restless book. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Catherine Ferguson

2.0 out of 5 stars NW by Zadie Smith

So sorry! It's not my cup of tea. Maybe someone should explain to me how it is all supposed to hang together. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Mr. Royce Lindsey-noble, Mrs Lindsey-noble

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing

I have read and enjoyed Zadie Smith's previous books, but found this one very patchy. There are stretches which are really well written and engaging, but the storyline has gaps in... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Louis the cat

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant

Beautifully written. Slightly weak middle section, but otherwise stunning and a real development in her writing. Thoroughly recommend this book.

Published 1 month ago by A. J. Bringans

4.0 out of 5 stars really enjoyed it!

I grew up in this area at around the same time as Zadie and she has really captured a feeling of the place
only 4 stars because I dont think there was any resolution to the... Read more

Published 1 month ago by kindleaddict

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