If you’re anything like me, you’ll have a copy of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth on your book case, looking all fancy to impress visitors – but you pray that they haven’t read in themselves and ask you questions because of course, you haven’t actually read it.
Recently I joined a book club and the first book was Zadie Smith's NW. I was really pleased because it meant I'd actually have too read a book of hers rather than giving up after the first few chapters!
NW follow four Londoners – Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan – after they’ve left their childhood estate and moved on to very different lives from each other. After a chance encounter they each find that the choices they've made, the people they once were and are now, rapidly unravel.
This book is covers so many things: love, race, the pursuit of and the definition of happiness, the embarrassments of youth and the falling short of ideals and expectations.
Now I’m not going to say this book was an easy read - it really wasn’t. Challenging is probably the best word to describe it! But it was also worth it.
The first part of the book is told from Leah and has no speech marks in it at all so we’re reading as if from her steam of consciousness. This doesn’t really make for an easy read as you’re battling to wonder who said what! It was a little distracting and I found myself having to re-read paragraphs and sometimes pages.
The section is told from Felix and with the added use of grammar makes it much easier to read and follow and by far he was my favourite character. Natalie came last with a couple of surprises that you just weren't expecting.
NW is without a doubt worth a read, even though difficult at times it did keep me gripped as I was desperate to find out how everything was resolved. Like I said, NW was challenging at times but it's oh so worth it when you get to the end!
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