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)

Trying too hard.

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

I don't think it was worth publishing.

What was most disappointing about Zadie Smith’s story?

She fails completely to convey meaning. She tries too hard with images that mean little. It is possible that the reader gets in the way of the story by interpreting things that the reader should be left to interpret. A good book does not need such an elaborate performance. The performance detracts from the book and adds nothing.

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

Hopefully not

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment.

Any additional comments?

I will have to read the book myself to give an objective view. The reader was much too involved.

Dont waste your time or money

This book came well recommended but after laboring through 4 hours I gave up.
I can't discern a plot line, and the characters are not real, at least not to my mind. The accents are well executed, but after a while annoying.
Perhaps if I hung in there longer, this book would go someplace, but I don't have the patience.

A poor choice

Zadie Smith is the most talented novelist of her generation, but stream of consciousness isn't her style, and her attempt at it makes this book unreadable. It's unfortunate. There's an interesting story here that's gone untold because of a stylistic misstep.

I couldn't get through this book.

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

I couldn't tolerate the stream of consciousness writing style. This was compounded by the fast rambling way it was read.

Big Disappointment

What would have made NW better?

If it had been written in the style of her previous two books, it would have been much better. I could not follow it nor could I become interested in the characters because of the way it was written. White Teeth was a fabulous read.

Would you ever listen to anything by Zadie Smith again?

I would probably read some of her earlier books, but if this is her new style I will not.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator was okay.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from NW?

I could not get into it deeply enough to even answer this question. The book seems very sterile to me.

discusting!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

poorly writen.

What was most disappointing about Zadie Smith’s story?

Filty language. story about nothing!

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

not unless she really improved her writing skills.all of them

What character would you cut from NW?

all of them! Start over!!!!

Not a good book for audio

The narrators do a great job with regional accents, but there are many portions of dialogue without any conventional "he said/she said" markers, so it was really hard to keep track of which character was saying what. I don't think I've ever had to rewind so much! Also, there are many references to things that are unique to the UK that I just didn't get and found it really frustrating. If I were reading it, I could just pause and look it up. But since I'd usually be listening while doing something else such as driving, I couldn't do that and I felt like I missed a lot. Maybe the book is great in print; it's just not good for audio.