Reviews
The book has it's faults but over all I liked it. It remeinded me a bit of Manchild if the characters had been recast as younger and Jewish. They are just as shallow and obsessed as their older goyish counterparts. The writing style reminds me of Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned in how it flits between prose and play with the occasional diagram thrown in. The book though is awkward in its presentation and experimentation and could use some editing -- a fifty page prologue is too long. While the author probably loved the backstory she had created for Alex-Li Tandem, knowing how his father died is not neccessary to appreciate the story. It would have been better to introduce the details throughout the story rather than up front. As Hathya appears to be too busy for BookCrossing right now and Kernow8 has decided to turn this ring into a ray, I've offered this book up to someone who has it on her wishlist. I'm just waiting for an address before releasing it.
An intriguing novel by Zadie Smith which for me ultimately didn’t reach its full potential. She is funny and nuanced as ever but the plot felt confused and I wanted more emotional catharsis. Despite this I have to applaud Smith’s ability to write characters that are never wholly likeable, yet we somehow remain attached to them. Also this leaves me with one book to go and I will have read all of her novels!!
