NW by Zadie Smith

The novel NW by Zadie Smith is about modern day black Londoners.  I was curious about the subject and I wanted to check out the author because she is so popular on the literary scene.

As I read the book I was confused by the varying text types differentiating the dialoge from the narrative. In the middle of the book the text style went back to traditional format, with quotation marks and everything. In the last few pages it went back to the unconventional format. I wondered at first was it a mistake.

I encountered the peculiar use of the English language, for example, a vacuum is a hoover. I knew some things that we in the U.S. know of are called different names in Britain, but it took some getting used to. You've heard the Benjamin Franklin saying that Americans and Brits are cousins separated by a common language. I learned a few things, and noticed how the British youth are unduly influenced by American Hip Hop culture.

My husband asked me about the book as I was halfway through and I was hard pressed to describe it. I went back to the dust cover to find that it's a "brilliant tragi-comic novel following four Londoners...as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood." See for us Americans, council estate sounds super fancy and rich. I found it to mean something like our low income projects.

As for the tragi-comic, I only found tragic. One character who actually had a chance to get out of the projects, insisted on doing things that would keep her there. She made decisions that made me just want to shake her and slam the book shut. I didn't laugh much though, wait I didn't laugh at all.

I'm going to read another Zadie Smith book just to be fair, to try to see what all of the hubbub is about.