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  • 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 27, 2007 | Add your feedback

• 2 of 2 people find this helpful

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  • 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

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.

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