Fictional book review: On Beauty (2005) by Zadie Smith.

Hello all. I wanted to start off by apologising for my absence. I have not been well and found it hard to truly concentrate on anything. But today I have started to feel a bit better so I thought it was time to jump on here. From now on, things should get back to normal.

As you tell from my blog heading, today I am giving you my review to Zadie Smith's third novel On Beauty (2005). Before I get stuck into that though, I just want to state how much I have enjoyed having reading Zadie Smith as my author of the month, this March. Her books have made me laugh and On Beauty is no exception!

This novel is rather something special. Unlike most novels I found it such a challenge to put the book down. With any novel I read I might put it down to cook food, eat food or go out somewhere for instance. But this book was making it hard to put it down and even harder the more I read. That is because I found it highly captivating and immensely funny. To me, On Beauty is funnier than both White Teeth (2000) and The Autograph Man (2002).

On Beauty is set across the Atlantic shifting between London in the U.K and the university town of Wellington in the U.S.A. This provides a good scope to display differences as seen with the two feuding families - The Belseys and The Kipps'. What amuses me about these two families is how it is never a simple "our family hates your family and vice versa". Friendships and other types of relationships form across time. For me, this created jagged family dynamic from the Belseys. Their responses to everything and how they are with each other had me laughing countless times. Yes there were times when I had sadness or shock for instance in  me. Though, even when I was worried of where the novel was going, Zadie Smith always manage to bring me right back to joy and laughter.

Here Zadie Smith adds loads of depth to her characters. With each individual character, you never know what is next to come from them. Not only that but the characters are all so different from one another. What I noticed is that Zadie Smith has made the characters all so real and authentic. I loved how in depth, how realistic and authentic her characters were here. I loved how they made you laugh even when they were not making others laugh. The novel kept on building and building, adding yet another new layer to each character as time passed.

Unlike her first two novels, On Beauty did not end in some big culminating event, not that I think that having one is bad. Instead, the novel (without giving away any spoilers) ended on this realisation of truth. As the novel became funnier, you became more aware of accepting the truth of things. That again is why I love this novel. I find it is funny, true, in depth and unapologetically realistic. For me, this book is far too good that it cannot get anything less than a 10/10.


Until next time,


Thomas.

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