NW

A Novel

By: Zadie Smith

Narrated by: Karen Bryson, Don Gilet

Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Somewhere in Northwest London stands Caldwell housing estate, relic of 70s urban planning. Five identical blocks, deliberately named: Hobbes, Smith, Bentham, Locke, and Russell. If you grew up there, the plan was to get out and get on, to something bigger, better.

Thirty years later, ex-Caldwell kids Leah, Natalie, Felix, and Nathan have all made it out, with varying degrees of succes - whatever that means. Living only streets apart, they occupy separate worlds and navigate an atomized city where few wish to be their neighbor’s keeper. Then, one April afternoon, a stranger comes to Leah’s door seeking help, disturbing the peace, and forcing Leah out of her isolation....

From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, in this delicate, devastating novel of encounters, the main streets hide the back alleys, and taking the high road can sometimes lead to a dead end. Zadie Smith’s NW brilliantly depicts the modern urban zone - familiar to city dwellers everywhere - in a tragicomic novel as mercurial as the city itself.

A 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
One of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2012
One of Time's Top 10 Fiction Books of 2012
One of The Wall Street Journal's Best 10 Fiction Books of 2012
A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book of 2012

©2012 Zadie Smith (P)2012 Penguin Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"This is a book in which you never know how things will come together or what will happen next... NW represents a deliberate undoing; an unpacking of Smith’s abundant narrative gifts to find a deeper truth, audacious and painful as that truth may be. The result is that rare thing, a book that is radical and passionate and real." (Anne Enright, The New York Times Book Review)

"A boldly Joycean appropriation, fortunately not so difficult of entry as its great model... Like Zadie Smith’s much-acclaimed predecessor White Teeth (2000), NW is an urban epic." (Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books)

"Endlessly fascinating... remarkable. ...The impression of Smith's casual brilliance is what constantly surprises, the way she tosses off insights about parenting and work that you've felt in some nebulous way but never been able to articulate." (Ron Charles, The Washington Post)

"Innovative and moving... This is a rich novel, as crammed with voices and layered with history and pop culture as is London itself. Smith’s flair for dialogue reaches a new height in NW, as she conveys the rhythms and diction of a variety of Londoners with wit and acuity. The story of what happens inside a person when she rises above the situation she was born into was of interest to Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, among countless other novelists. Zadie Smith has delivered her contribution to this literary tradition with aplomb." (Dallas Morning News)

Fantastic book. Fantastic narrators.

This was the rare book that is as good as an audio book as it is on paper. I loved every bit of it. Complex without being complicated. Perfect.

Wanders off

If you’ve listened to books by Zadie Smith before, how does this one compare?

Characters & setting more compelling than On Beauty (it's hard to sustain that much dislike & contempt for all main characters), but plot much, much thinner.

Any additional comments?

It was really evocative, and I enjoyed the different characters' way of seeing the same place and the very different voices, but it felt like the author lost her way at the end and everyone just sort of wandered off stage left.

Excellent

Excellent but missing some key phrases and sentences from the book A brilliantly narrated book though

I believe this book is best listened to than read

Author Smith says NW is about language, and I agree. Language is central to our understanding of the characters, and language defines their lives in many ways. I had the good fortune to listen to the audio of this title, brilliantly read by Karen Bryson and Don Gilet. Having access to a paper copy at the same time, I feel confident that the spoken version is an aid to clarity and understanding, and there was true enjoyment in hearing the range of vocal virtuosity by both readers. I did end up listening to it twice.

A clear example of how language can define one is the incident of a boneheaded young man with the posh accent, Tom, selling an old MG to the young man Felix, who had made great strides towards self-realization despite the tug of his background and the brake of his language. Any observer of that scene would immediately suspect Felix of putting the fix on when objectively that would be far from the case. And Keisha, or Natalie as she began calling herself, managed to change most things about her world when she changed her language. She became a barrister and even forgot what it was like to be poor.

But this novel is also about the process of becoming. To my way of thinking, there are only two central characters in the novel, Leah and Natalie. Both resist adulthood, but the choice is not really theirs to make. They become adults despite their attempts to hold back the process, and end up making decisions that demonstrate authorial control over their own lives, and stopping their ears to very loud protestations from their inner selves. Therefore they land in adulthood awkwardly, splay-legged and wrong-footed, and must find a way to right themselves again before acknowledging they are older, wiser, and already there.

Several other minor characters, e.g., Annie and Nathan, manage to avoid true adulthood altogether by burying their options beneath addictions. Felix was the one that was most consciously “becoming.” He strove daily to be a better man--for his woman, for himself, for his future family. He made himself happy doing it. He got clean, “was conscious,” and made himself and his family proud. But demons chased him down. Maybe you can’t really ever get free.

In the last third of the book, a 50-something female barrister “role model” dressed in a gold satin shirt beneath the expected blazer, and a diamante trim to de rigueur black court shoes tells Natalie: '“Turn yourself down. One notch. Two. Because this is not neutral.” She passed a hand over her neat frame from her head to her lap, like a scanner. “This is never neutral.”'

Of course I’d heard of Zadie Smith, but I’d never read her early work. She was so popular when she first came into print that I decided to wait to form my own opinion when the clamour died down. Sometimes it is so noisy out there when a new, talented author is heralded that I can’t hear myself think.

I never had the feeling while reading this novel that Smith was haphazard in her choice of images or language. The novel is constructed and in the end one looks up to see graffiti covering a wall with violent scribbles of bright color. Overlaid, a couple words traced in black paint stand out over the rest: SEX RACE CLASS

Zadie Smith's Postmodern Novel

The setting is similar to White Teeth.

The characters and environment (especially the environment) are tangible. The dialects are fantastic; the narrators do an amazing job.

The story is interesting and revealing.

And yet. While I enjoyed the book, I did not like it as much as White Teeth or Swing Time (the other ZS novels I've read to this point). I do not have an issue in general with postmodernism (or at least what I think that means). In fact many of my favorite authors are labeled as postmodern. This book uses non-linear timelines, stream of consciousness, bits of overheard conversation, snippets of broadcast dialogue and other PM (?) techniques.

While effective in terms of relaying the story and providing meaning, this approach somehow diminished the impact of the novel just a bit.

I guess I feel a bit ambiguous about this book. I really liked it, but I didn't love it (as I did her other books).

Wish I had read this instead of listening to it

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend the audiobook if you are not familiar with Britain and its dialects but I feel that it does not easily lend itself to audio as many chapters are brief (one line) and disjointed. At the beginning I had no idea what was going on. Being a visual person, I found it hard to create a picture initially because the text was so vague. I think it may have been easier if I was reading the book and could slow down and fully appreciate this writing technique. As the book progressed and I got a better picture of the characters and neighborhood I really appreciated Zadie Smith's talent in painting a vivid picture, although I have lived in London and I think this also helped a lot with my comprehension of the characters and setting.
The readers did an amazing job with sustaining their character dialects. Wow!
Zadie does not put in any superlative text so you really have to pay attention when listening as it is not easy to rewind and find what you missed - it's often very subtle but every line essential to the story.

Any additional comments?

I have read Zadie Smith's other books. I think her style is better suited to reading than listening. She has a great talent for getting beyond the superficial and revealing the reality of our thoughts and actions; what really motivates people and the influence of society, race and class on the choices we make.

I will probably listen to this over again or read the text so I can fully appreciate it.

Globalize London

Social commentary and personal malaise of two strivers who escape the ghetto. Friction of immigrant groups grating against each other. Brilliant performances make me want to listen to it again.

Not my favorite

it might have been experimental but it was just such a bore- glad to have finished it and move on

Probably better read than listened to!

What disappointed you about NW?

I found it hard to listen to. The stream of consciousness style and the ultra short chapters in the latter part of the book are probably easier to digest on the page. For a while it is as if you are listening to single sentences separated by chapter numbers, rather distracting. It is one of those books that I would read at various speed, i.e. some parts of it I would linger over and others I'd flip through. Very different from Smith's other books, more experimental in form, imho. That said, I am thinking about getting it as a book from the library to see if I like it better that way.

What do you think your next listen will be?

My current listen is Augustus by Anthony Everitt.

Would you be willing to try another one of Karen Bryson’s performances?

Dunno. The book as such is probably hard to perform. That said, she did a wonderful job of switching from one dialect to the next, and made many of the characters come alive.

DON'T BUY THIS BOOK, ITS TERRIBLE

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

NO ONE

Would you ever listen to anything by Zadie Smith again?

YES

Which character – as performed by Karen Bryson – was your favorite?

NONE

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

NO

Any additional comments?

I STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS ABOUT. I FINISHED BOOK 1 AND HATED THE BOOK. I HAD READ "WHITE TEETH" BY ZADIE SMITH AND LOVED IT. THATS WHY I ORDERED THIS BOOK. BIG MISTAKE. MAYBE YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK AND NOT LISTEN TO.