Review: On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Two Multi-racial Families Struggle to Find the True Beauty in Life
Jan 13, 2009
Zadie Smith’s third novel, On Beauty, captures reality in the many subplots seamlessly woven into the story of two multi-racial families caught up in the struggles of the 21st century world. The book is loosely based on Howards End by E. M. Forster, and has been described by Smith as a 'homage' to Forster's novel.
Smith explores the workings of family and marriage, identifies the collision of the personal and the political, and takes an honest look at people’s self-deceptions. The novel deals with serious issues but allows them to be viewed in a way that is both humorous and thought provoking, providing for an interesting read.
The Storyline
The novel centers around the Besley family, comprised of 57-year-old white intellectual and art history professor Howard, his 250-pound, warm and generous black wife Kiki, and their three children: Jerome, Zora and Levi.
At the beginning of the novel contentious and recent Christian convert Jerome falls in love with the dangerously beautiful daughter of the story’s other family: the Kippses. This short-lived romance with Victoria, coupled with the hatred between the fathers of the two families and Howard’s recent marital unfaithfulness, provides the basis for a story full of controversy and deceit.
Conflicts in the Novel
The plot is further enriched when awkward but headstrong Zora meets a young black rapper from the street who is as handsome as he is talented. With less than noble motives, Zora encourages him to join her poetry class at the main set of the story: Wellington College in the suburbs of Boston.
In contrast with the other characters, 16-year-old Levi, repelled by the academic life he was raised in, is desperate to maintain his “street cred” and reinvent himself as a street hustler and activist from the hood. His dream seems closer to reality when he falls in with a group of politically enraged Haitian immigrants who enlist him in their cause.
How She Tells the Story
The complicated plot is surprisingly well maintained and lacks the confusion expected in such an intricate story line. Smith is an excellent storyteller and explores the different themes and ideas expressed in the book in a manner that is natural and beneficial to the story. She even manages to make the most mundane of activities -- such as Levi’s bus ride into Roxbury and Howard’s set up of a projector -- interesting and insightful.
Smith is a master of dialogue and description. She places the reader firmly in the story, compelling him to see through the eyes of the book’s many characters. These characters, while colorful and unique, remain real and tangible. Though seriously flawed and capable of committing horrible acts, the reader cannot help but feel love and sympathy toward them. At different points during the story, many of the characters behave deplorably, but Smith never lets the reader lose sight of what demons or delusions may have been spurring them on, making their actions make sense to them.
The Characters’ Attraction
The most seriously flawed characters in the novel are actually the most loveable, because they seem the most human. Smith explores their conscious minds more deeply than those of other characters in the book, allowing the reader to feel their pain and understand their reasoning. She even manages to make the most physically ugly of characters beautiful.
The essential theme and question of the novel is portrayed through its title: On Beauty. Though never directly stated, the characters are forced, through their circumstances, to discover what things in life are truly beautiful and discover how far he or she is willing to go to get or maintain them.
On Beauty possesses a vibe of reality, a dose of intellectual thought and a thrill of entertainment that make it worth the 443-page read.
