Craig McLean meets ZADIE SMITH, and finds a formidable fidgeter
with a great new novel, On Beauty, under her belt.
adie Smith. glatn and leggy in short skirt.
a rhapsody in fashionable brown. hair
wrapped up in a scarf. crosses the street. She manages to both stride and scurry in this vvell—to-do corner of the north-west London she‘s always called home. talking into her mobile. She‘s arrived hall an hour early for our interview. as have I. | spot her from my vantage point outside a deli.
I sink dovvn behind Martha and Harare/l. her tvvo short stories published in a slim volume by Penguin earlier this year to mark its 70th birthday. I’m not ready to meet her yet. I am. frankly. intimidated by the cleverness of the woman who wrote her brilliant first book White 'I’eeth while still a student at Cambridge. and who recently spent a year at Harvard‘s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. teaching. taking a postgraduate course in the Modern Iiuropean .\'ovel. and working on a book called The .llora/itv oft/1e Novel (as yet unpublished). She's still only 2‘).
I need a bit more time and just one tnore coffee to gee myself tip. As she disappears into a nice cafe. I carry on reading. In her introduction to Martha and Harare/l. she writes that ‘everything about my mind is baggy. inconclusive. garrulous and broad‘. I’m not sure I entirely believe her.
(‘ometh the hour. cometh the interview. Smith
is tucked away into the furthest back corner of
the cafe. head down. She‘s smiley and friendly. but it‘s instantly apparent that the author is even more jittery than tne (which is a bit of a relief). She doesn‘t do interviews these days. but has agreed to talk novv world exclusively! » in advance of her appearance at the lidinburgh Book l‘estival.
Smith was overwhelmed by the hype. and the occasional sniping. that attended the runaway success of White 'leet/z in 2000: was fed tip being pictured as sortie sort of literary poster girl for multicultural Britain. She didn't talk at all when The .IHIUg/‘(lph .l/Ian came out in 2002. choosing the exact moment of its publication to escape to the safety of American academia. A craftswoman when it comes to writing. she feels she comes across like a waffiing lunatic when she speaks. and fears how others will interpret this in print. She also refuses point blank to go on TV. Too. loo ct'ittgy.
‘I feel a bit knackered actually. like I have nothing to say.' she smiles in her deep. semi-posh voice early on. as if slotting her get-out clause in early. ‘I feel run down.‘
She says she 'literally did the final copy edit’ of
()n Beauty. her new novel. five days previously. so isn‘t sure how much perspective she has on it. But for all her self—criticism she insists ‘I am happy. I wanted it to be enjoyable. The first one. I was so young and it was kind of a splurge. and the second one I was depressed. I jtist want this one to be gnarl. So I wouldn‘t be as embarrassed by it. Because I now know what it‘s like to live with books that you don’t like very much for a long time.‘ she says with a nervous laugh.
She can hopefully relax a bit. beause ()2: Beauty is great. It manages to cover hefty themes such as sexuality. race. the nature of art. the emotional quicksand of the family. and all the while is an intimate. believable. refreshing. relaxing. big read. Unlike 'I'he Autograph Man a sprawling. overly tricksy book that seemed to
sacrifice narrative power for the sake of
improbany extreme characterisation »- her third novel is a tightly written page-turner. And it‘s funny. Howard Belsey is a white. lifty'something Iinglish academic lecturing in art history in a college town on America‘s east coast. IIe's engaged in a feud with a fellow academic. and is also battling with his black American wife and three kids. largely becaUse he‘s been something of an idiot. Smith describes his midlife
meltdown. often viewed through the keen eyes of
his offspring. with compelling vigour.
The book‘s narrative zip possibly stems in part from the fact that it‘s her most personal novel to date. The Belsey family dynamic mirrors her own. and she‘s even written her rapper brother Doc Brown into the plot. while Belsey‘s teenage son Levi — desperate to be a ‘street‘ hip hop kid ~
is very like her brother Luke. A huge fan of
Nabokov“s campus novel Pniu ('possibly my favourite novel‘ ). she was also keen to reflect on her time at university.
‘I thought Cambridge was going to be about loving books and walking around in a floppy hat.
‘I WAS ANGRY AT
WHAT CAMBRIDGE
DID TO MY AFFECT ION FOR FICTION, AND
TO MY ACADEMIC LIFE - I BECAME A REAL PSCYHO, I THINK'
But it was about hardcore French theory. It was scary for me. And it was very good and I‘m glad and I don‘t resent it any more. But for a while I was really angry at what they did to my affection for fiction. and to my academic life. I became a real psycho. I think. And when I got to Harvard I felt like a lot of kids in my class were having a similar experience. So it was kind of about that.’
Is her mind really baggy. inconclusive. garrulous and broad'.’ ‘It's true. you can tell it from the books!‘ she exclaims. acknowledging that while she once said she never wanted to write anything as long as White 'Ieeth again. ()1: Beauty is longer still (482 pages). 'But I no longer think that is a terrible thing. There are very precise writers like (‘oetzee or Mcliwan. Then there are people like me. I‘ve tried to control myself with this book a bit tnore. But the things which are me aren‘t gonna go away.
‘I was reading Daniel Denna/a when I was writing this. and that‘s a big book and it‘s not wonderful in all parts. But it’s so enjoyable. And I‘d rather read that a million times over than something thin and precise.‘
Zadie Smith pauses and smiles. fidgeting still but seemingly content with her new novel. ‘I just want people to be happy.‘ she beams. Despite being dragged into the interview spotlight. she seems almost happy. too.
28 Aug, 3pm, £7 (£5). On Beauty is published on 2 Sep.
THE BOOKER SOUAD'S ODDS
Zadie Smith’s forthcoming novel On Beauty has already made the 17-strong Man Booker Ionglist. The bookies rate it at 16/1. James Smart scans the competition.
< Ian McEwan The 4/1 favourite as we went to press. McEwan has a strong pedigree ~ his brilliant novella Amsterdam scooped the prize in 1998. Saturday is the day in the life of a neurosurgeon. l \\' .‘v'i'v [was t Julian ‘4? "»'-—i:~...‘~'; LL-'~~~4~‘I'~'-.; Barnes > Snapping at McEwan's heels on 9/2. Arthur 8. George represents a fine return to form, reimagining a gruesome case involving Arthur
Conan Doyle.
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< Salman Rushdie The Booker of Bookers winner bowls through the Book Festival this week (see preview. page 74). Can he triumph again with Sha/i'mar the Clown? At 7/1 . you'd be a fool to rule him out.
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Dan Jacobson >
At 9/1 . Jacobson's new novel All for Love swerves past the dreadful Sting, Rod Stewart and Bryan Adams song of the same name to retell the story of the love affair between a Hapsburg princess and a soldier.
< Hilary Mantel Tired of being driven mad by the spirit world. Alison. a gin swilling professional medium and the heroine of Mantel's funny and disturbing Beyond Black. moves house. It's 9/1.
I Iilary' Mantel
Ali Smith >
The sole Scottish
challenger. unless you count Dundee raised James Meek. Smith sits comfortably in the pack at 12/1 with lheAcc/dental. about a tortured academic.
< Marina Lewycka Two sisters try to protect their father from a gold digger in A Short History of Tractors II) the Ukraine. Despite its rather lovely name. at 20/1 Lewycka's debut is something of a long shot.
mm umm
Harry
Thompson >
The man behind Havel Got News for You is another 20/1 outsider and another debut novelist. This Thing of Darkness follows the troubled relationship between Charles Darwin and Robert Fit/toy. the captain of the Beagle.
I I he Short/1st for the Man Booker prize IS announced on 8 Sop. T he Winner Will be announced on IO Oct.
25) Aug B Set) 200:) THE LIST 1 1