Book 54 - Zadie Smith "N-W"

Zadie Smith "N-W" (Hamish Hamilton)






Zadie Smith has written another novel about diversity set in Northwest London. Race is part of the mix, but the lifestyle and social class of the inhabitants contribute much to the contrasts in this part of the city. One of my favorite descriptions showed the contradiction between the foreclosed shopping center with broken windows next to a park with a foully stained water-logged mattress and a view of "an ancient crenellation and spire, just visible through the branches of a towering ash...a medieval country church, stranded on this half acre, in the middle of a roundabout. Out of time, out of place." The residents of Northwest London were also distinct. Prosperous barristers lived near working class people, and they both shared the streets and shops with drug dealers and the homeless.

The residents of Northwest London that Zadie Smith introduces us to in NW are facing their share of life challenges. They are working class people. A few are addicts. One escapes.

Leah and Keisha are childhood best friends who are of different races but the same class. As they grow older, Leah is quite ambition less but Keisha remains focused and determined to escape the boundaries the lower middle class. While climbing the ladder to a better life, Keisha decides to change her name to Natalie. Natalie's new status in life afforded her to marry well and start a new life away from the lower rungs of the class ladder that descended into Northwest London. When Natalie discovers a new hobby she suddenly finds herself lower than she ever was before.

Leah remains in NorthWest London. She also marries and her husband is eager to start a family. Leah goes to great lengths to make sure this never happens. Her secrets torment her.

Felix is a recovering drug addict whose mother abandoned him and his siblings leaving them with their Rastafarian father. Felix is optimistic about starting over. He is walking away from old habits and an old love. What he walks into is far worse than what he is walking away from.

I liked the story of the friendship between Leah and Keisha, who later redesigned herself as Natalie, a lawyer and young mother of two children who acted out her fantasies in her secret life. I also liked the section devoted to Felix, a druggie who was turning his life around. Nathan was the dark horse in this story who played a bit role that was difficult to piece together but led to a dramatic ending.

This book was harder for me to like than White Teeth because of the mish-mash of styles that Ms. Smith chose to tell her story. Moving from stream-of-consciousness to numbered vignettes and from poetic language to street talk left me feeling restless and confused. I'm sure this was done intentionally to make the reader feel like they were inhabiting the area. Smith did create a fabulous sense of place in NW. I just wish I hadn't felt distracted by her various literary devices so I could more easily discern the plot.


You'll gave to read it and decide for yourself.

The Black Stuff

Last night i re-watched the DVD Last Shop Standing about the decline of the record store, the rise of CD's and the rediscovery of vinyl, if it ever went away, ha!  Plus one of the store owners interviewed prefers to call them albums or LP's as vinyl sounds like it should be something you lay on a floor and walk over.

Anyway, since that film was made two shops in Brighton have closed down, Rounder and more recently Borderline Records. Sad to see them go, particularly the latter. That just leaves Resident in the North Laines for new stuff. For collectors of used albums then there still is Across The Tracks and Wax Factor, plus Rare Kind for the funk soul and hip hop, and for classical stuff Fine Records in Hove (hello Julian!).

Whilst CD's are more portable, compact and so on, nothing beats an album for aesthetics and a tangible sense of the real.

Vinyl , oops, LP's and seven inch singles , are still cool in my books.

A Fountain Morning

So after my foray into early Genesis , here is another of my favourite tracks, this time from the Nursery Cryme album, The Fountain Of Salmacis.

I suppose it is the use of organ and mellotron that makes this track for me as well as the complex time signatures and feel of the song. Prog-rock at its sublime best.

Enjoy.

Chatham Visit

I know, bit of a late post, but i have been watching telly , done some revision and inputted two reports from mystery shop visits i did today.Oh and reading friends' blogs here on LJ.

I hopped on the train to Chatham and covertly shopped Rymans and a travel agent. Bought myself another moleskin notebook in brown livery from Rymans which i get to keep and get paid for. YAY!

Weather , of course , has been glorious. Hated being stuck in the Office for two hours late afternoon. Hey ho!

The telly watching was an old Star Trek NG episode with Picard at the helm and an ITV drama called Endeavour based on the early police career of Inspector Morse, based around Oxford.

So what have you guys been up to today?

Userpics

Has anyone suffered from userpic or avatar problems on LJ ? I seem to be missing some or they are not showing up at all. It is another frustrating aspect of these idiots tinkering with LJ. If it is not broken do not fix it, i say!!!