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"In this sharp, engaging satire, beauty's only skin-deep, but funny cuts to the bone." - Kirkus Reviews
Penguin
September 2005
464 pages
ISBN: 1594200637
Hardcover
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Contemporary
Howard Belsey, a Rembrandt scholar who doesn't like
Rembrandt, is an Englishman abroad and a long-suffering
professor at Wellington, a liberal New England arts
college. He has been married for thirty years to Kiki, an
American woman who no longer resembles the sexy activist
she once was. Their three children passionately pursue
their own paths: Levi quests after authentic blackness,
Zora believes that intellectuals can redeem everybody, and
Jerome struggles to be a believer in a family of strict
atheists. Faced with the oppressive enthusiasms of his
children, Howard feels that the first two acts of his life
are over and he has no clear plans for the finale. Or the
encore. Then Jerome, Howard's older son, falls for Victoria, the
stunning daughter of the right-wing icon Monty Kipps, and
the two families find themselves thrown together in a
beautiful corner of America, enacting a cultural and
personal war against the background of real wars that they
barely register. An infidelity, a death, and a legacy set
in motion a chain of events that sees all parties forced to
examine the unarticulated assumptions which underpin their
lives. How do you choose the work on which to spend your
life? Why do you love the people you love? Do you really
believe what you claim to? And what is the beautiful thing,
and how far will you go to get it? Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Zadie Smith's third
novel is a brilliant analysis of family life, the
institution of marriage, intersections of the personal and
political, and an honest look at people's deceptions. It is
also, as you might expect, very funny indeed.
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