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On Beauty

By Zadie Smith

(203)

| Hardcover | 9781594200632

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Book Description

Howard Belsey, a Rembrandt scholar who doesn't like Rembrandt, is an Englishman abroad and a long-suffering professor at Wellington, a liberal New England arts college. He has been married for thirty years to Kiki, an American woman who no longer resembles the sexy activist she once was. Their threeContinue

Howard Belsey, a Rembrandt scholar who doesn't like Rembrandt, is an Englishman abroad and a long-suffering professor at Wellington, a liberal New England arts 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: Levi quests after authentic blackness, Zora believes that intellectuals can redeem everybody, and Jerome struggles to be a believer in a family of strict atheists. 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. Or the encore.

Then Jerome, Howard's older son, falls for Victoria, the stunning daughter of the right-wing icon Monty Kipps, and 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. An infidelity, a death, and a legacy set in motion a chain of events that sees all parties forced to examine the unarticulated assumptions which underpin their lives. How do you choose the work on which to spend your life? Why do you love the people you love? Do you really believe what you claim to? And what is the beautiful thing, and how far will you go to get it?

Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Zadie Smith's third novel is a brilliant analysis of family life, the institution of marriage, intersections of the personal and political, and an honest look at people's deceptions. It is also, as you might expect, very funny indeed.

Critics

  • A thing of beauty

    On Beauty by Zadie Smith Hamish Hamilton £16.99, pp445 Even if she had not made it explicit in her acknowledgments, Zadie Smith's homage to EM Forster's Howards End announces itself in the opening line of her third novel: 'One may as well begin with ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Howard's folly

    On Beauty by Zadie Smith 432pp, Hamish Hamilton, £16.99 Among the many tasks Zadie Smith sets herself in her ambitious, hugely impressive new novel is that of finding a style at once flexible enough to give voice to the multitude of different worlds ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

13 Reviews

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  • 5 people find this helpful

    Another tour de force from Zadie Smith after White Teeth. She handled racial tension in an American family so well. And the dialogues are hilarious.

    Very funny. Enjoy.

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    Tracy W said on Apr 12, 2007 | Add your feedback

  • 3 people find this helpful

    Reading On Beauty

    Zadie Smith's On Beauty is a pleasurable read. It's easy to get wrapped up in the people who populate the incisive tale. At the book's center is the story of two competing families. The Belseys are headed up by Howard, a white Englishman who is a Rembrandt expert and professor at a prestigious East ... (continue)

    Zadie Smith's On Beauty is a pleasurable read. It's easy to get wrapped up in the people who populate the incisive tale. At the book's center is the story of two competing families. The Belseys are headed up by Howard, a white Englishman who is a Rembrandt expert and professor at a prestigious East Coast university. His arch rival is Monty Kipps, a black Englishman who is a heavy duty conservative (he argues strenuously against affirmative action) and who has written a successful Rembrandt novel that has made Howard look a bit of a fool.

    Both men are surrounded by unique families, and we primarily see the story unfold through the Belseys. Howard's wife, Kiki, is a large, exuberant African-American who is suffering under the revelation that Howard has cheated on her. Their oldest son, Jerome, has accepted Christianity despite all of his parents' exhortations to the contrary. Zora is the daughter, and she is a force at the college where Howard teaches. She is an almost ideal student - but one who seems to have very little creativity of her own. And finally, youngest son Levi may be the most engaging character. He's a high school student who is fascinated with hip hop and puts on a Brooklyn accent even though he has never been there.

    Despite Howard's bitter hatred of Monty, Kiki strikes up a friendship with Monty's wife Karlene. Their lives intertwine in other ways as well, with some of them being rather unfortunate.

    I fell in love with the characters of the book and what they taught me as well. And once again, I found myself disappointed that The Sea was the winner of the 2005 Man Booker prize when there was better stuff to be found.

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    moogle said on Mar 28, 2007 | Add your feedback

  • 2 people find this helpful

    Smith's third novel, an intrepid attempt to explore the sad stuff of adult life, 21st century–style: adultery, identity crises and emotional suffocation, interracial and intraracial global conflicts and religious zealotry. Like Smith's smash debut, White Teeth (2000).

    I actually preferred Whit ... (continue)

    Smith's third novel, an intrepid attempt to explore the sad stuff of adult life, 21st century–style: adultery, identity crises and emotional suffocation, interracial and intraracial global conflicts and religious zealotry. Like Smith's smash debut, White Teeth (2000).

    I actually preferred White Teeth, but this was still a worthwhile read.

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    ambient pleasures said on Sep 12, 2006 | Add your feedback

  • An ambitious try, indeed, but not quite successful: after reading the masterpiece that is "White Teeth", I had great expectations for "On Beauty", and very few of them were actually met.
    Characterisation is good here and there, but overall too sketchy: not all the important characters are given enou ... (continue)

    An ambitious try, indeed, but not quite successful: after reading the masterpiece that is "White Teeth", I had great expectations for "On Beauty", and very few of them were actually met.
    Characterisation is good here and there, but overall too sketchy: not all the important characters are given enough space to make their mark on the reader's imagination, which is a pity, as it is clear that they do have something to add to the story (I'll take Jerome as an example: the story begins with him, and almost because of him, but where does he disappear, then, going forward?).
    The plot itself has the potential to become another great and greatly funny domestic saga, but ends up losing itself in the recesses of long-winded lecture-like passages and loose ends: the ending is no ending, to the point that, upon reading it, I couldn't help but ask myself "so what?".
    Not as pleasant a read as I hoped for, but I'd still praise Zadie Smith for her ability to portray a gamut of human sensations and faults that we all have met, at some point, or even felt ourselves.

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    Iris Trouble B. said on May 20, 2012 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • A strange book.
    I can't say I love it, and I almost stopped reading one third through, but then I kept going because it was unlike any other book I've read. There were some interesting parts, but it was a bit dispersive, and it didn't really have a storyline somehow.

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    Mag said on Jul 15, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Expected something more...

    Actually, after the great "White Teeth" I expected something more by Zadie Smith's "On beauty". Dialogues, Black British references and background are always well displayed throughout the narrative, but the story fails catching the attention and enthusiasm of the readers. I'll surely give her other ... (continue)

    Actually, after the great "White Teeth" I expected something more by Zadie Smith's "On beauty". Dialogues, Black British references and background are always well displayed throughout the narrative, but the story fails catching the attention and enthusiasm of the readers. I'll surely give her other chances 'cause she writes in a very enjoyable way, but for this time she hasn't met my expectations. Sorry Zadie!

    Is this helpful?

    Camilla Zu said on Jun 25, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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9781594200632 Hardcover $25.95 $22.18 bn.com
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