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D L E F K C R E D O R
Books REVIEWS
SOCIAL DRAMA ZADIE SMITH NW (Hamish Hamilton) ●●●●● The fourth novel from the Orange Prize- winner takes its title from a universal urban sign-post, that of the North-West district in a(ny) city. But its landmarks are so embedded in Smith’s hometown of London (the tube map, Edgware Road, Notting Hill Carnival) that, really, it couldn’t be anywhere else.
NW’s narrative, chronology and points of view breathe and mutate, just like the city, as Smith’s colourful prose and patois makes way for a stand-out centrepiece of humorous, tragic and enlightening vignettes.
NW entwines and rewinds the lives of four thirtysomething Londoners – Leah, Nathan, Felix and Natalie – who grew up together on a council estate. Natalie reinvents herself by dis- carding her birth name, Keisha (perhaps this is a wry nod to Smith herself adapting her moniker from Sadie, aged 14). But as with the metropolis, NW is as much about the anonymous characters that populate its busy streets and our (potential) relationships with these neighbouring strangers: the devasta- tion they can cause; the ways in which some incidents invoke shockwaves that reverberate long after the event.
Smith’s treatise on love, race, friendship, family and change (or the impossibility thereof) is rooted in recent time, as evinced by references to the Kensal Rise hurricane, the loss of Kilburn Woolworth’s and it also makes reference to the recent demise (and social importance) of Kensal Rise Library. Despite its often destitute reality, NW reads like a love letter to a lost home. As a former inhabitant of NW, I found myself pining for streets and shops and basements I didn’t think I’d ever miss. (Nicola Meighan)
SOCIAL DRAMA MICHAEL CHABON Telegraph Avenue (Fourth Estate) ●●●●●
In Telegraph Avenue, Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe are the broke but not yet beaten owners of Brokeland Records (‘the Church of Vinyl’), which is now under threat from ‘G-Bad’ Goode’s plans for a rival megastore. The novel dissects Archy and Nat’s intertwined
families and their discordant relationships, Chabon touching gracefully on issues of race and sexuality, and as the story unravels memories and past mis- deeds mingle with the present, and history repeats itself like a broken record. Ironically, the thickly thatched descriptions and digressions often lack
EXPERIMENTAL FICTION WILL SELF Umbrella (Bloomsbury) ●●●●●
Umbrella’s long-listing for the 2012 Booker Prize suggests a line in the sand being drawn after last year’s panel called for ‘readability’. But someone needs to further represent the voice of populism because this book is hard work. One 400-page chapter interweaving three differ- ent narratives spanning a century and employing paragraph breaks sparingly and speech marks not at all, the book is an intentionally disorientating read mirroring the condition of Audrey Death, a victim of a catatonia-inducing virus. Self describes attempts by psychiatrist Dr Zack Busner to treat
this patient in 1971, while also threading in the narratives of Busner as a retired divorcee in 2010 and Death as a pacifist munitions worker in 1918, in what is essentially a torrent-of-consciousness riff on modernity. Clearly the exhausting demands of an author running rings around you with his knotty prose while he essentially makes up the rules as he goes along won’t be for all. (Malcolm Jack)
rhythm, detracting from the drama or humour bubbling beneath the surface. Pared back, however, Chabon’s narrative is engaging and organic.
Ultimately, the characters are guarded and lack depth, the emphasis instead is on accumulating cultural details. Undoubtedly, Telegraph Avenue has a flashy sleeve, but it feels disappointingly flimsy between the fingers. (Rebecca Ross)
WAR NOVEL PAT BARKER Toby’s Room (Hamish Hamilton) ●●●●●
In the new novel from Booker-winner Pat Barker, the main protagonists Toby and Elinor Brooke are brother and sister: and lovers. Their illicit relation- ship is almost the breaking point for their once steadfast bond but when Toby is killed in the war, Elinor becomes obsessed with finding out how he died. The only witness, Kit Neville, is recovering from a horrific facial injury and is reluctant to tell Elinor the truth. When she does find out, will she be able to finally close the door on her brother’s empty room?
ART HISTORY WILL GOMPERTZ What Are You Looking At? (Viking) ●●●●●
‘It’s a fact of life,’ declares the BBC’s Arts Editor in his new book, ‘arts folk talk bollocks’. In a bid to buck this trend, Will Gompertz’s lengthy diversion through the history of modernism is a straight-talking journey across 150 years of art. Jargon-free and void of pomposity, this informal chronicle found its starting point in his 2009 one- man Edinburgh Fringe show Double Art History, an attempt to debunk the shroud of quasi-academic guff that often surrounds contemporary art. Gompertz follows a familiar historical trail lead- ing from Duchamp’s ubiquitous urinal of 1917,
What could be a predictable return to a favoured formula is instead an innova- tive and intriguing narrative. Art, history and the human body are the focus, as artists, medics and ordinary men try to rebuild their shattered lives and bodies. Harrowing and heartfelt, Barker doesn’t shy away from the destructive force of war, leaving Toby’s Room simply impossible to put down. (Jen Bowden)
through all the ‘isms’ and ending with the global art boom of the last 25 years. The author uses biographical anecdotes to relate people, ideas and places, often dashing back and forth between European and US shores. While this book does little to challenge or add to the existing Western history of modern art, it certainly offers an unusually intelligible guide. (Rosalie Doubal)
38 THE LIST 23 Aug–20 Sep 2012