Zadie Smith
Paperback | Pages: 445 pages Rating: 3.73 | 62192 Users | 4580 Reviews
Describe Books As On Beauty
| Original Title: | On Beauty |
| ISBN: | 0143037749 (ISBN13: 9780143037743) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Howard Belsey, Kiki Belsey, Victoria Kipps, Jerome Belsey |
| Literary Awards: | Booker Prize Nominee (2005), Orange Prize for Fiction (2006), Somerset Maugham Award (2006), Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (2006), Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize Nominee for Comic Fiction (2006) Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in South Asia and Europe (2006) |
Explanation Toward Books On Beauty
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.
Particularize Regarding Books On Beauty
| Title | : | On Beauty |
| Author | : | Zadie Smith |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 445 pages |
| Published | : | August 29th 2006 by Penguin Books (first published June 4th 2005) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Contemporary. Novels |
Rating Regarding Books On Beauty
Ratings: 3.73 From 62192 Users | 4580 ReviewsCriticize Regarding Books On Beauty
When I say I am not a people person, I mean I can find five reasons to hate someone, anyone, within ten minutes of meeting them in real life. As consequence of this and the desire to not let overwhelming anger ruin my life, I am always putting myself in the other's place, years of which have both calmed me down and sharpened my analysis to the quick. However much I initially dislike you, I will always, always, always respect you, and if you're not a complete and utter asshole and/or hypocrite
Alive is the word which springs to mind about this novel. It is a glorious, page-turning, rip-snorter of a tale through the lives of a white British college professor, Howard Belsey who's married to a black American, their three near-adult children and Howard's nemesis Monty Kipps.My favorite part is Howard's reaction while listening to the glee club singers at the formal college dinner; uproariously funny and totally priceless! This is a novel where I would love to read a prequel and a sequel
I'm beginning to think the problem isn't the books, but me. I was really, really primed to like this book. Not only had one friend spoken favorably of it, another had seen to it that the book was carried all the way from Malawi, Africa to New York and then sent to me. I am embarrassed to report I had a hard time even finishing it. My primary complaint is contrivances. The dialogue was unnatural to me...and the plot, my goodness. It was hard enough to believe in such a deep academic feud between
Amandeep wrote: "It was a good decision when i started following you. Thanks for introducing to Zadie."hope you like her too!
I find myself liking Zadie Smith more and more. The blurb about this wasnt immediately promising; another novel about a middle-aged academic having an affair resulting in a family and personal crisis. However, there is much more going on. Smith herself has acknowledged that it is an Homage to Howards End. The author creates a multitude of voices, all interesting in their own right. It is set in a fictional American university town, Wellington (a thinly disguised Harvard). The novel revolves
Before we talk about Zadie Smith, lets talk about me first. Here is something you should know I was a serious book-worm up until I turned 16 (more or less) at which point I lost all interest in anything that wasnt parties, boys, alcohol, drugs or sex. There, I said it. For the next five years my brain didnt see much action (I somehow managed to finish high school and got accepted into the University of Warsaw but generally I found education a big distraction to my social life). I was about 21
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