Last year, I read a number of books of short stories and reiterated in each review that short stories aren’t really my thing. I like a lot of plot to sink my teeth into and by and large, I don’t get that from short stories. Doesn’t mean they’re bad, just means they’re not for me. I get Zadie Smith’s Feel Free and somehow just completely missed the part where it says “essays” on the front cover. So like short stories, but non fiction. I very nearly gave up on this to move on to more fictional pastures, but Obama released his list of favorite books of 2018 and it was on there, so back I went.
Zadie Smith is a mind-boggingly comprehensive cultural connoisseur. I lack the vocabulary to really read and understand this, much less review it. My background in the visual arts gave me a leg up when she comes to talk about the works of Mark Bradford and Kerry James Marshall (though full disclosure, I’d never heard of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, but you better believe I have now) but I was utterly at a loss when she moved on to break down modern literature. Honestly, the essay I understood best was her deep dive into Key & Peele, which included a measured analysis of the specifics of the humor in Get Out that I as a white woman had neither the experience nor the words for.
This is a book I can imagine being better to own than to borrow. To be able to read an essay maybe two or three times through, then put the book down, move on to something else, and come back at your leisure. This is not meant for my preferred style of power-reading (like power-walking, but for words!) because it is far too dense and thorough. I had considered myself a fairly educated, cultured person but hoo boy was I a ways off. The five-minus-one star rating is a knock against me, not her.
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