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The biggest question we must as me about this book is: Is it better than On Beauty? Simply, eh, probably not. While I truly enjoyed this novel and I recommend it to everyone that I know I still think On Beauty was better. It was just more fitting to the things I am interested in, the places I have been.

This is a wonderful novel though. It follows the story of two men, their three children, and the lives they impact throughout London, a tale that is complete only because of Ms. Smith’s intrecate knowledge of London and the way she drives location to be an aspect of the story. The piece becomes a memoir of the city, of generations, of religious movements, war stories, and rebellion.

Her prose is both dense and beautiful, the layers that bring together time, space, and personality make all of her novels work. Though this novel which is some 450 pages long, is quite a read, so pack a lunch.

This is really a wonderful book.

I started reading Zadie Smith after she did the guest introduction to the 2003 Best American Nonrequired reading. I enjoyed what she had to say there and decided to pick up her novels. On Beauty being the most recent, was the first I picked up. A very dense novel which for the most part I couldn’t put down. I have very vivid memories of carrying this book with me everywhere and just constantly reading it, work, david’s bedroom floor, out to eat, in bed at night, until I finished.

Smith perfectly recreates the collegiate environment that she is working towards, and you feel an attachment to every character in the novel, no matter how many inane courses of action they will take, you want them to win. You want every character to be happy, you want to talk to them, you want to take courses from them, you want to hear their street poetics and their academic debates.

This book was recently put on the New York Times Top Ten Books of 2005, and they are right, it really is a dedicated and cared for creation that carries the reader into a world that is not their own.