NW
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Penguin Putnam
New York Times Ten Best Books of 2012
?A boldly Joycean appropriation, fortunately not so difficult of entry as its great model? Like Zadie Smith’s much-acclaimed predecessor White Teeth (2000), NW is an urban epic.” --Joyce
… More »?A boldly Joycean appropriation, fortunately not so difficult of entry as its great model? Like Zadie Smith’s much-acclaimed predecessor White Teeth (2000), NW is an urban epic.” --Joyce
Penguin Putnam
Baker & Taylor
Growing up in the same 1970s urban planning development in Northwest London, four young people pursue independent and reasonably successful lives until one of them is abruptly drawn out of her isolation by a stranger who is seeking her help.
Baker
& Taylor
Growing up in the same 1970s urban planning development in Northwest London, four young people pursue independent and reasonably successful lives until one of them is abruptly drawn out of her isolation by a stranger who is seeking her help. By the author ofOn Beauty. (This book was previously listed in Forecast.)
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New York Times Ten Best Books of 2012
?A boldly Joycean appropriation, fortunately not so difficult of entry as its great model? Like Zadie Smith’s much-acclaimed predecessor White Teeth (2000), NW is an urban epic.” --Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books
This is the story of a city.
The northwest corner of a city. Here you’ll find guests and hosts, those with power and those without it, people who live somewhere special and others who live nowhere at all. And many people in between.
Every city is like this. Cheek-by-jowl living. Separate worlds.
And then there are the visitations: the rare times a stranger crosses a threshold without permission or warning, causing a disruption in the whole system. Like the April afternoon a woman came to Leah Hanwell’s door, seeking help, disturbing the peace, forcing Leah out of her isolation?
Zadie Smith’s brilliant tragi-comic new novel follows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan ? as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their London is a complicated place, as beautiful as it is brutal, where the thoroughfares hide the back alleys and taking the high road can sometimes lead you to a dead end.
Depicting the modern urban zone ? familiar to town-dwellers everywhere ? Zadie Smith’s NW is a quietly devastating novel of encounters, mercurial and vital, like the city itself.
?A boldly Joycean appropriation, fortunately not so difficult of entry as its great model? Like Zadie Smith’s much-acclaimed predecessor White Teeth (2000), NW is an urban epic.” --Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books
This is the story of a city.
The northwest corner of a city. Here you’ll find guests and hosts, those with power and those without it, people who live somewhere special and others who live nowhere at all. And many people in between.
Every city is like this. Cheek-by-jowl living. Separate worlds.
And then there are the visitations: the rare times a stranger crosses a threshold without permission or warning, causing a disruption in the whole system. Like the April afternoon a woman came to Leah Hanwell’s door, seeking help, disturbing the peace, forcing Leah out of her isolation?
Zadie Smith’s brilliant tragi-comic new novel follows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan ? as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their London is a complicated place, as beautiful as it is brutal, where the thoroughfares hide the back alleys and taking the high road can sometimes lead you to a dead end.
Depicting the modern urban zone ? familiar to town-dwellers everywhere ? Zadie Smith’s NW is a quietly devastating novel of encounters, mercurial and vital, like the city itself.
Baker & Taylor
Growing up in the same 1970s urban planning development in Northwest London, four young people pursue independent and reasonably successful lives until one of them is abruptly drawn out of her isolation by a stranger who is seeking her help.
Baker
& Taylor
Growing up in the same 1970s urban planning development in Northwest London, four young people pursue independent and reasonably successful lives until one of them is abruptly drawn out of her isolation by a stranger who is seeking her help. By the author of
Imprint:
New York - Penguin Press
Pages:
401
ISBN:
9781594203978, 1594203970
Language:
English
Notes:
Visitation -- Guest -- Host -- Crossing
Statement of responsibility:
Zadie Smith
Characteristics:
401 p. ;,25 cm.
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Add a CommentI tried really hard to enjoy this book, reading over the first 100 pages but there was essentially no plot to get engaged in. While the writing style in this section of the book is quite unique, it takes a genuine effort to follow the dialog. Unfortunately, I didn't feel very rewarded with for my "sticktoitiveness." I, therefore, abandoned this book. I've heard great things about her other books and they are not written in the same style and are very plot driven so perhaps I will enjoy those.
I so enjoyed 'White teeth' and 'On beauty'. This was not as satisfying. Fine writing but I guess I prefer a more traditional form. I don't think the various clips and lists added anything - quite the opposite. Still, it is Zadie Smith, and much better than most contemporary writers.
I'm pretty much obsessed with Zadie Smith's writing. Met her at the Barnes and Noble Arboretum back in 2005, maybe 2006. I'm having a hard time finishing this book as I only find the characters' stories and conversations half interestng. I will pick it up again someday. In the meantime, Smith has written a terrific short story, which appears in the New Yorker, "The Embassy of Cambodia." Great character study of Fatou, a nanny with many curiosities. Now, I hope that Fatou becomes the protagonist is Smith's next novel.
In "NW," Sadie Smith continues to mature as a novelist. Her writing here is fresher and more experimental than the two other titles I am familiar with, "White Teeth" and "On Beauty." Again she deftly tackles the challenges found at the intersections of race, class, family, and couple relationships through rich language and the development of immensely interesting and empathetic characters. In "NW" though, she moves away from the nosier and more external action of these other novels. While still capturing the voice of the streets with rhythm and immediacy, she deepens and quiets the internal dialogue, enriching the readers experience of how we speak within ourselves when we wonder at our connection to others.
I was so looking forward to NW after enjoying the audio version of On Beauty. NW left me confused though. The jacket summary says the book is about four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan. I don't even recall Felix, where the heck was he? Nathan came and went briefly. In the opening of Chapter 2 a young woman is introduced with such thrust that I'm convinced she will play some important part in the story but that fizzles out with no resolution. Did I completely miss something. After Natalie's voice took over the story, I enjoyed it but overall the experience just confused me.
NW, well what can I say - it is not a typical Zadie Smith book. This book is broken into a few different sections, each with a very different writing style. My favourite was the Keisha/Natalie section. I found it interesting how Smith provided snippets of story in a dis-jointed way. The first section though, the 'Leah section', is quite confusing. It is hard to tell who is speaking and to be honest the storyline of that section is a bit annoying. I think that the Natalie section makes this book worth the read, but I didn't enjoy the other sections that much. I found Felix's behaviour to be despicable. Don't expect a Zadie Smith book when you read this book, or else you will probably be disappointed.
NW is not Zadie Smith's best. However, it shows a writer at her finest and bravest exploring diverse terrain and experimenting with different methods and vocabularies with which to present those explorations. That makes Smith's examination of intersecting worlds and lives in the northwest corner of contemporary London a still fascinating if sometimes frustrating read.
Like John Lanchester's Capital or Sebastian Faulks' A Week in December, NW is a sprawling tale of life in a small corner of London - in this case, the northwest corner. It follows the lives of four young people growing up in the same 1970s urban planning development as they pursue independent and (in some cases) reasonably successful lives... until they are drawn together once again. Though NW is more adventurously structured and narrated, author Zadie Smith, as in her other novels, creates a strong sense of place as she tackles issues of class, money, fate, and identity in a richly diverse urban environment. From October 2012 Next Reads newsletter http://www.nextreads.com/Display2.aspx?SID=5acc8fc1-4e91-4ebe-906d-f8fc5e82a8e0&N=558348
A pretty realistic look at life for Londoners in the NW area. Zadie Smith has a deft hand with dialogue and character.