Please excuse me as I give this blog writing thing another go. I posted a couple days ago about where I’ve been. I am incredibly rusty. Additionally, something I’ve been meaning to do is make notes as I read, so that I can remember all the things I was thinking at the time (because there are so very many thoughts). Sometimes I come to write something and feel like I have nothing to say, which wasn’t the case when I was reading the book.
So, Zadie Smith eh? I’ve wanted to read White Teeth for a whole lot of years, but never had the chance. I came across Feel Free as I was browsing this lovely indie book shop called Black Squirrel Books and decided I should try her essays out. I love reading essays and don’t do it enough.
Feel Free surprised me. I’ve been coming to accept that most writers are not going to meet my standards for good writing. It sounds pretentious and it may well be, but it’s nice to be proven wrong sometimes. I was astonished by how lovely her writing is. She is incredibly talented, intelligent, particularly curious and knowledgeable about art and literature. Zadie Smith gives off an air of brilliance and dedication that I admire so much in artists of any kind. How do they do it, I ask, as she asks the question ‘how do they do it?’ to those of us who manage more than one particular love or interest. I’m not quite that refined, really, but Smith is.
In this collection of essays you’ll come across a wide variety of thought on a broad range of subjects. A couple are political in nature, though Smith seems to temper her feelings about certain things with a kind of optimism. Very few of these are personal, but she confesses to a strong distaste towards first person writing for most of her life and seems to be (at least in 2016 when this was written) challenging that a little bit with a few of these essays. Most are about literature, some art or music, a few of them mention people in her life.
There wasn’t a strong pull towards many of her ideas or thoughts as I read. Of the very few that I even understood (I am not as well read as she is, even with my measly BA in Literature), it was an appreciation of who she is coming to the page to give me impressions about her life and feelings. Reading this felt like I was watching someone perform and was left dazzled by their ability to put so many things together in so many ways, whose language and love of literature seems to exceed anything I’d dream of for myself.
As a result, I’ve gone ahead and bought On Beauty to read this year and I am looking forward to it!
Posted on Instagram:
Here’s what I wrote about it when I posted it to Instagram:
“Do you ever find a dog-eared page in your used book and wonder what it was that made them stop there, so early on, and later sell the book?
Feel Free is a series of essays on culture, time and place. Zadie Smith’s writing is somehow gentle yet precise, honest but measured. I’ve needed to read something like this for a while, so it has been refreshing to me.
Maybe a bit arrested in time, expect musings on Brexit, changes in London and the UK generally, thoughtful and philosophical analysis on film such as Anomalisa, an interview with comedians Key and Peele, thoughts on music and Facebook and so much more.
I adore Smith’s words and her mind, and can’t wait to read more of her work.”
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