Swing Time

very good book on navigating on the complexity of identity, puberty, womanhood, & relationships (both personal and professional)

Parts were great, but as a whole? I’m not sure. 3.5.

A story of friendship and dance, travelling through London and West Africa. I loved the gripping beginning describing intertwined friendship and family relationships in London estates. Interesting -though lengthy developments on race, gender and power, but also dance and pop culture, are scattered throughout the rest of the book. Disappointingly, I found the narrator too flat to live up to the other characters and to truly relate to her.

I was completely captivated by the story while also completely disliking the protagonist/narrator. Her cluelessness about anything happening around her, her passivity, her inability to ever say the right thing at the right time, all of these qualities were utterly infuriating to me. (This is one of those times where what I hate most in others is what I hate most in myself.) Every time I put the book down it was with some level of exasperation with the narrator; yet I couldn't stop picking the book up. The story loops and circles, which I always love. And the other characters have something going on, something worth diving into feet first. Highly recommend.

[...] we always batted away what we considered to be the banal and prurient curiosity of strangers — 'But won't she grow up confused?' 'How will she choose between your cultures?' — to the point that sometimes I felt the whole purpose of my childhood was to demonstrate to the less enlightened that I was not confused and had no trouble choosing. 'Life is confusing!' — my mother's imperious rebuff. But isn't there also a deep expectation of sameness between parent and child? I think I was strange to my mother and to my father, a changeling belonging to neither one of them [...] I really wanted to love 'Swing Time'. a story that centres on two biracial girls, with many observations such as those contained in the extract above. however, it fell short for me. Zadie Smith is as wonderful & intelligent as ever but the novel itself feels more like a collection of these random observations & struggles to find its flow. I found myself not caring for or even disliking characters I should in theory relate to or root for more than ever. arguably, neither of the story's leads are meant to be all that likeable in the first place but the narrator ultimately does not learn from her experiences & remains self-centred & almost oblivious throughout. maybe that's the point — it's human to be self-absorbed — but I can't shake the realisation that Smith's characters in other novels are similarly flawed but nowhere near as annoying. this was (unfortunately) a disappointing read but does not tarnish my love for Zadie Smith's writing in the slightest; there was still so much nuance & skill shown in 'Swing Time' that I would probably recommend it despite the all-over-the-place plot. as usual, it's a story that leaves you with a lot to think about & many lessons learnt.

** spoiler alert ** Ehh. Had a hard time with this one. Got more interesting towards the end. Will have to think about how to fit the pieces of the story together; so much bewildering (for me) allusion. Ps. Oh! The parallel with a recent Liberian story was quite startling! That added a level of interest for me (happily).

Gorgeously written and some parts were beautiful and moving. Others (the African set ones) not so much. And it is Tracey the real protagonist of the book, not the narrator, sorry Zadie.

I really enjoyed this book, particularly the second half. The author did a great job of blending all of the multiple timelines and capturing the particulars neccessary to establish each time and place.. The characters were so alive, and this depiction of the love-hate, push-pull of female friendship really stuck with me.

I'm struck as I finish this book, by the thought that this novel doesn't quite aspire to be as powerful as people might think it does. It felt, to me, like a contemporary fiction - like the life (so far) story of the narrator and her close relationships; the way she is led through life rather than striving through it. I suppose a book, even if intended to be light, would always come across as rather more literary than intended when written by a person such as Zadie Smith. And I think that is at least half of the reason I liked it. This book didn't have 'airs and graces', even as it dealt with very complex issues. I also really liked the book because, in a number of ways, I could very much relate to the experience of the narrator. Though I've never danced, nor am I 'brown', her experience in terms of emotions, and not wanting to be wrong, and aware of where I 'should' fit in - these things all resonate with my own experience. And the sense that there is some invisible way in which I should probably have power, or be able to forge my own power, but I simply can't find it. The book is very well written, and even though you never know the name of the narrator, that never seemed to stand out to me as conspicuously hidden. I felt the tone of the novel, with its levity, was so easily conveyed that it was only after I'd finished that I realised that it was mirrored in the old-time musicals that the narrator so loved - the facade of ease and laughter, on top of layers of real life, racism, and problematic relationships. Of course that was likely intentional, but I think it the mark of a good book that it never occurred to me during the course of the book, and therefore isn't heavy-handed in the allusion. In the end, I rate this a very solid 4 stars, not quite 5. The only thing stopping me from placing it at 5 is what I felt to be the lack of a true water-shed moment for the narrator. Even in the face of her crumbling world at the end, I never truly felt that hit home. That aside, I truly enjoyed this book, and I was already recommending it to a couple of friends before I was done.

It’s about friendship, race, class, motherhood and dance and it raises interesting questions about each of these things without ever offering any answers. But that doesn’t bother me. When the writing is this good, the questions are often more important than the answers.

I am so torn by this book. The key thing I want to say is the writing is gorgeous. Smith has a way with making her words into sentences that absolutely got me from the first page. But the problem is sometimes I was focusing too much on how pretty the sentences sounded rather than what the story was. Don't get me wrong. Swing Time addresses so many hard hitting issues in this book, that combined with her writing style MAKES you feel, for a time, that you are reading an incredible book. And I'm sure for some people that is what it is. From race, gender, celebrity culture, third world poverty, political culture, mum issues, drugs, and alcohol, and relationships. This book covers SO MUCH. But I feel that among all this the story got lost. There was no real plot. I have seen some reviews describe the book as a journey rather than a book with an end. Which I find accurate. I also found it unsatisfying as a reader. Covering so many topics across such a broad time frame, there was a lack of focus. By the time I was getting immersed in one issue Aimee was tackling in her life, we were done and off to another one. I felt like the story was always 'off track'. The chopping and changing was used too much, between countries and time frames and the current issues, making it difficult and confusing and sometimes just a headache to read. So often I felt it was difficult for me to grasp where the story was at. And despite covering the entire 400+ pages up close and personal with Aimee and all of her life struggles, I felt no connection to the MC. I never pitied her, or wanted to support her, or was angry at her. I just felt no emotional connection. Which really feels like a missed opportunity for the author. I admire the ambition of the book and adore Smith's way with words and sentences. And because of this, Swing Time will not be the last Zadie Smith book for me. But all in all, I won't be revisting Swing Time again.

The blurb didn't really do this book justice. While it is, on the surface, a story of two brown girls, one who can dance, and one who can't, it really is more about a person adrift. Tracey, the girl who can dance, is the far more intriguing character. But, focus is the unnamed narrator who is really just a shadow of the other people in her life. These supporting characters are important to the narrative, but the narrative skips around in both time and place, and makes you want more, but also less. The writing is lovely, the imagery evocative. Smith has a lot to say, a lot of it important, but you quickly become overwhelmed with the ideas. The chapters with pop star Aimee, the narrator's boss, were illuminating in the exploration of white savior complex, cultural appropriation, and wealth, but otherwise were dull. Plus, the narrator is a sad character, one who has great ideas, great thoughts, but ultimately floats through life on the graces and failures of others. The ending left me cold.

Although this book didn't connect a lot for me emotionally, I think it's very well written and is probably fairly important as a piece of literature.

Listened as an audiobook. Did not go anything like what I expected but still an enjoyable experience nonetheless.

This book could have been shorter but I understand that the story needed to be told in all of its little details and seemingly mundane glances and words. There are many truths here but I didn't love it. So it goes