On Beauty...

This is an enormously rich text, and I could not possibly sum it up for you in this format. Too much to say! But I enjoyed the study of humanity that Smith puts forth – as well as her prose. Although some find her wordy… perhaps listening to it on CD makes a difference. It was a long but rewarding process.

On Beauty centres around the Belsey family, Howard and Kiki and their children Jerome, Zora and Levi. Each is dealing with something major in their life. Then, there is also the Kipps family, headed by Howard’s nemesis Sir Monty Kipps. Both patriarchs are academics. Monty is a more successful, ultra-conservative version of Howard, so obviously Howards abhors him. But as the book goes on, we find that they have more in common than otherwise assumed. A similar parallel is drawn between their wives, who strike up an unlikely friendship. Kiki is a big, loud beautiful black woman who is seriously questioning Howard’s success as a husband, whereas Carleen is a more traditional, demure housewife. She lives to support her brilliant husband, but never assumes she is his equal. She is also extremely ill.

Each of the children are in their own worlds – Jerome begins the novel by declaring his love for the daughter of Kipps – much to Howard’s dismay. Zora is also struggling with love, in a storyline that is very much caught up with class. The relationship that she has with penniless rapper Carl is fascinating. At first, she would like nothing more to avoid him, but in Carl’s desire to be a part of the world of the Wellington University elite, he ends up making the plain and dumpy Zora fall hard for him. Levi, usually the most carefree and self-absorbed of the Belsey’s, meets a group of Haitians, and becomes caught up in their plight.

A number of social and political themes underlie the story, as well as obvious references to E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End – a connection which bodes ominously for Howard and his mid-life existential crisis. However, a working knowledge of this text is not necessary for the enjoyment of this one. There is also a host of other fascinating characters and scenarios. Victoria Kipps, whom Jerome proposed to, is not at all as she appears. And one of my favourite scenes involves Howard – a professor of aesthetics who has woven emotional reaction out of his appreciation of the Arts, is brought to tears by the music played at a funeral.

I could never fully encapsulate all this is special about this text in one entry, so here are some links for further reading if you are interested. All I know is I will certainly be venturing into the work of Zadie Smith again.


http://www.oxonianreview.org/issues/5-1/5-1hay.html

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,1566399,00.html

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,1562117,00.html