Week four, book four

A book by an author you've never read before - NW

I was a little tentative going into reading this, even though I've had Zadie Smith's various books recommended to me by just about everyone I know.

She has a very distinctive way of writing, which was particularly noticeable in NW as it's told from several different characters' perspectives. I usually avoid reading anything like this at all costs (I once read a book set across eight centuries and via at least one ghost and I'm still not sure who was alive by the end).

Happily, though, NW does not jump perspectives from chapter to chapter, instead following one person's life in the months leading up to one weekend in summer, and then backtracking again and retelling it through another's eyes. It's pretty daunting to begin with, as the thoughts and surroundings of the first storyteller - Leah - are piled on top of one another. Memories, half-heard conversations, and that endless London rush build up to establish setting more effectively than just about anything I've read recently.

Since finishing NW I have read a handful of reviews, and a recurring criticism seems to be its slump in pace. I've been guilty of giving up on books that do this but I persevered here and didn't find the novel especially slow. If anything, I think a slower pace works in its favour, adding to this feeling of the oppressive, lazy city heat. I finished reading this while sat in a doctors' surgery on a grey January evening, and I still felt like I'd been transported to London in a bustling summer.

I really enjoyed NW, once I'd got used to Smith's writing style and lack of speech marks (this always, always throws me) and I've since found a copy of her book On Beauty in a charity shop, which I can't wait to start reading.

I borrowed a copy of this from the library but failing that it can be bought directly from Random House here. Here's the reading guide I'm following this year.