Swing Time (Smith)

Book Reviews
Every once in a while, a novel reminds us of why we still need them. Building upon the promise of White Teeth, written almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith’s Swing Time boldly reimagines the classically English preoccupation with class and status for a new era—in which race, gender, and the strange distortions of contemporary celebrity meet on a global stage…No detail feels extraneous, least of all the book’s resonant motif, the sankofa bird, with its backward-arching neck—suggestive less of a dancer than of an author, looking to her origins to understand the path ahead.
Megan O’Grady, Vogue


Smith delivers a page-turner that’s also beautifully written (a rare combo), but best of all, she doesn’t sidestep the painful stuff.
Glamour

 
A sweeping meditation on art, race, and identity that may be [Smith’s] most ambitious work yet.
Esquire


Transfixing, wide-ranging (from continents to emotions to footwork.)
Marie Claire


A thoughtful tale of two childhood BFFs whose shared passion for dance takes them on wildly divergent life paths.
Cosmopolitan


(Starred review.) [P]overty is a daily struggle and the juxtaposition makes for poignant parallels and contrasts. Though some of the later chapters seem unnecessarily protracted, the story is rich and absorbing, especially when it highlights Smith's ever-brilliant perspective on pop culture.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) The remarkable Smith again does what she does best, packing a personal story...into a larger understanding of how we humans form tribes.... The narrative moves deftly and absorbingly.... A rich and sensitive drama...for all readers. —Barbara Hoffert
Library Journal


(Starred review.)Agile and discerning…. With homage to dance as a unifying force, arresting observations…exceptionally diverse and magnetizing characters, and lashing satire, Swing Time is an acidly funny, fluently global, and head-spinning novel about the quest for meaning, exaltation, and love.
Booklist


(Starred review.) A keen, controlled novel.... [Smith] crafts quicksilver fiction around intense friendship, race, and class.... Moving, funny, and grave, this novel parses race and global politics with Fred Astaire’s or Michael Jackson's grace.
Kirkus Reviews