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 […]
Nowadays I know the true reason I read is to feel less alone
Changing my mind is an essay collection by Zadie Smith. There is a new one out called Free, this is the one she wrote before Free, (back when Obama was still president. This fact will depress you). The collection of essays is a mix between articles, lectures and auto-biographical snippets. As far as essay-collections go this is a pretty mixed bag. It deals both with authors, film, her father, and her blackness. “Nowadays I know the true reason I read is to feel less alone, […]
A little hypocrisy for everyone
After reading a flurry of enjoyable romance novels, I was ready for something a little different, so I went back to my list of 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 and picked up On Beauty (2005) by Zadie Smith. This is my first time reading Zadie Smith, and I was very impressed. She wrote an engrossing book with memorable characters. She plays a lot with issues of identity, race, class, and academia, but I always felt that the characters came first. I will definitely be […]
The middle of a novel is a state of mind. Strange things happen in it. Time collapses.
Changing My Mind – 4/5 Stars So this post is a compendium of reviews based initially on my reading of this, Zadie Smith’s early collection of essays. These essays are not part of an intentional collection and represent a set number of years of nonfiction writing projects for Smith. The best of them are the reviews, including and sometimes especially her movie reviews, longform journalism (which is the least interesting, if not impactful writing in the book), writing about writing, and writing about her father. […]