"on beauty" by zadie smith

there is nothing simple about this novel. the characters are complicated and well-rounded, the storyline is layered and nuanced, there are often scenes with multiple people doing multiple things. i understand where the frequent dickens comparisons come from. i don't care much for dickens, but i very much enjoyed this book.

“on beauty” tells the story of a family in the suburbs of boston. the white father, howard, is an art history professor. the wife, kiki, a self-proclaimed "big black woman”. two sons; jerome who disappoints his kin with his christian values and levi, who wants nothing more than to be a street-wise black kid instead of the privileged suburbanite, and a daughter, zora, who does her best to follow in her father’s intellectual footsteps. the family dynamic is thrown for a loop when jerome falls in love with a rival family’s daughter and harold has a brief affair with a fellow professor.

this is not a book you can skim through. it demands your full attention and i often found myself having to go back and re-read sentences that i too casually sped past. that said, it's density is rewarding.

zadie smith is only seven years older than me and i kind of hate her for that. however, i'm glad i finally got past the hype and read this book. i look forward to reading more.