Zadie Smith

I made the initial comment so: Autograph man is unreadable and White Teeth starts off okay and then goes off the rails completely. It's not a Zadie Smith thing, Pete, it's a book thing. Neither book is what it's cracked up to be and both books were heralded as fab, super, great, amazing pieces of fiction. They're boring. In my view, of course.

That's what I wanted to hear!! (I wasn't having a pop, at all - I'm just curious - I liked White Teeth a lot. I think it wobbled ever so slightly toward the end, but, by and large, didn't mind it. And Autograph Man, again - I thought it displayed much potential. I think she is yet to write the book she'll be remembered for but I do think she's quote unquote important . . .) There Said my piece Will now skulk back to my booklined hole in the ground and stop annoying people . . . .

You seemed to have read my mind here, Pete. I was thinking of posting on Zadie today but never got round to it. I really enjoyed White Teeth and although it might not be as good as people say (always a big problem with hyped books as well as movies) I think it's a really, intelligent, well written book. I gather she was a student when she came up with the fragments that became the novel ..and was paid a huge five/six figure advance on it ..so I can see how some people might get riled by that. I bought The Autograph Man a couple of months ago, however.. and didn't get through the first thirty pages. It seems a hell of a lot more dense than White Teeth. I'll give it another crack soon.. maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it at the time.

no, I know you're not having a pop. To me, she's a bit of a Carson McCullers figure. But then a lot of people rated the heart is a lonely hunter, so what do I know...

i've only read white teeth, and i didn't make it to the end, have to agree with you marc, it did go "off the rails", i put it down and haven't felt any urges to pick it up again, not even sure where itis actually, i've got piles of book in the spare room!!

This is probably a separate thread in its own right but - how can you give up on a book?!? There's a part of me that admires the ability to stop reading something if it isn't enjoyable but - I just can't do it. I always have to read a book to the end, even if it feels like I'm sticking forks in my eyes... In point of fact, I can only remember NOT finishing one book in maybe the last ten years and that book was V by Thomas Pynchon (I read it maybe seven years ago, and I just couldn't do it - Pynchon beat me into submission - but even with that, even with the only book I never got to the end of, I thought the fault was mine, not the book - I reckon I'll go back to Pynchon in about ten years and really really enjoy myself. At the minute I'm just too dumb to appreciate him . . .)

I used to be a lot more diligent with books ..but I figure if I'm not enjoying something then I might as well put it down and do something I like. It's hard though, I know. I usually finish them. Gravity's Rainbow did that to me.. what a doorstop of a book.. think I was about half way through and there were some great moments in it (a brilliant part about the main character lost in a sewer, if I remember rightly) but it was just too much for me. I like reading books in a short space of time and if I end up labouring over something for weeks and weeks then I figure that even if I am likely to finish then I won't have really got the best out of it. I have a completely different attitude when it comes to films. HAVE to watch till the end.. even if the film turns out to be mind numbing garbage. No idea why. Me and my dad are massive film fans so I s'pose I've always done it. [%sig%]

I'm fairly awful with books to be honest. if the writer hasn't got me in the first twenty pages then I'm afraid it's back on the shelf immediately. Often, you feel you "ought" to read something because it's been well marketted (ie, critics have raved about it) or it's been labelled as a classic by god knows who down the years, academics probably. Well, in my view, the majority of critics are glorified PR merchants and a lot of classics aren't very good - I could blame academics for that, but that may be going too far. A book should be enjoyable, not an exercise in endurance, stamina and general masochism. Actually, I think a book is a truly horrible experience when you're forcing yourself to finish it. Funnily enough, I've always been afraid of Pynchon. More so now.

I have that problem too... if a book doesnt grab me by, say, at least chapter three, i simply cant keep at it, life is too short, and i dont get enough time as it is to read books i *do* like - though oddly, i cant throw them away either. I have zadies white teeth and also corrections, both on my bookshelf, both unfinished. annoying.

S'funny - I quit reading V when the main character (whose name escapes me, I'm in denial with the whole V trip) was down the sewer . . . Pynchon must have a thing for sewers . . .

I'd say that there are other writers who are better than Pynchon on sewerage.. but only a few. It's been acknowledged as one of the trickiest subjects to write on. The rivers of s**t, rats, endless bacteriae, homeless people, more rats, escaped prisoners, used tampons.. so much hangs in the balance. Read more in Harold Bloom's 'Expulsion; Drainage, Sileage and Sewerage in the Modern Novel' It's really something that Zadie is going to have to attempt at some point ;-) [%sig%]

I can empathise with the 20 pages/three chapters view, but the trouble is, when I think about it, it's not very reasonable. When I'm in a particular mood, no book on earth is going to 'grab' me, and when I'm in a mood for reading, I reckon I can tackle (and thoroughly enjoy,) almost anything. I know this because the same book can magically change from being a borefest to an excellent read in a day or two. For example, a year or so ago I picked up 'The Man Who Was Thursday' from my parent's shelf, thinking I'd dip into it. It was back on the shelf in two minutes, forgotten in three. Some time later I did exactly the same thing, seemingly in no different a mood, and consequently read the whole thing in two nights - the fastest I'd ever read a book that length at the time. I never thought before then that the word 'unputdownable' could apply to me. Which all just goes to show. Then there's the case of one of my favourite books ever - Leonard Cohen's 'Beautiful Losers'. There are many bits I've read twice, and a handful that I keep rereading every now and then. But I've never actually finished the thing!

well i might get back to it, never say never, but it's not calling me too loudly...

I was the same with White Teeth and stopped very shortly in to it but then picked it up again about 3 months later and really enjoyed it. Not so The Autograph Man. Corrections I have half read and will not be going back to it. I really enjoyed the first part and then found as I went along that I just couldn't care less about any of the characters. I felt they were bland and not terribly well defined. Having said that, many people I know who have read it loved it. I'm now struggling with The Little Friend having sped through the first 3/4 now I'm losing interest. Is it worth persevering?

I'd say no. The Little Friend is a whole lot of decorative language hiding - well, not very much. There's a sort of Red Hand Gang climax in a water tower but - no, it's not worth persevering with if yr not altogether enjoying it.

Thanks Pete, I might give it one last chance as I like the little girl character but the red neck "baddies" were pssing me off.

I like any book in which the heroine's name is Harriet (my daughter was named after the inexpressibly magnificent Harriet the Spy), but, for all that - it aint no great shakes . . . In point of fact (while I'm on my high horse) this has been a big year for disappointing, hyped fiction (Donna Tartt being a prime example). The real gems this year have sneaked up on the radar almost unseen: Hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland, Timoleon Vieta Come Home by Dan Rhodes, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steve Sherill . . . All gems, all well worth reading, all knock hyped efforts by Tartt, Amis, Eugenides, etc into a cocked hat . . .

i bought the tartt book, having been bowled over, years ago by a secret history....and i had probs, put it down, it's now lost in a pile of books, and i haven't dredged up the enthusiasm to go and look for it again.

Really enjoyed White Teeth but gave up on Autograph Man.. think I just got bored with it so it went back to the library half read.