On Beauty

By: Zadie Smith

Narrated by: Peter Francis James

Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

In this loose retelling of Howard's End, Zadie Smith considers the big questions:

Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful?

Set in New England mainly and London partly, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families—the Belseys and the Kippses—and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kippses, the confusions—both personal and political—of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family.

©2005 Zadie Smith (P)2005 Penguin Audio, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., and BBC Audiobooks America

Critic reviews

2006 Orange Prize for Fiction

2005 Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award, Fiction

"[A] thoroughly original tale about families and generational change, about race and multiculturalism in millennial America, about love and identity and the ways they are affected by the passage of time. Ms. Smith possesses a captivating authorial voice - at once authoritative and nonchalant, and capacious enough to accommodate high moral seriousness, laid-back humor and virtually everything in between - and in these pages, she uses that voice to enormous effect, giving us that rare thing: a novel that is as affecting as it is entertaining, as provocative as it is humane." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

"Oh happy day when a writer as gifted as Zadie Smith fulfills her early promise with a novel as accomplished, substantive and penetrating as On Beauty. It's a thing of beauty indeed. In tackling grown-up issues of marriage, adultery, race, class, liberalism and aesthetics, she thrillingly balances engaging ideas with equally engaging characters. As good as she is with big ideas, Smith is even stronger at capturing family dynamics, the heartbreak of broken trust as well as the lovely connections between siblings. (The Los Angeles Times Book Review)

"In this sharp, engaging satire, beauty's only skin-deep, but funny cuts to the bone." (Kirkus Reviews)

Briliance

Zadie Smith is a Brilliant author. Capital B! Her writing is captivating. She’s subtly descriptive in how she describes the characters throughout the story. Great dialogues! I feel lucky to have had the pleasure to read her work! I am excited that there is more!

Fabulous in every way!

Not only was this a deeply engaging story and the characters astutely drawn but the narration was absolutely superb! So few readers actually manage to create distinct and authentic voices for each character but this narrator had AMAZING range across gender, nationality, age, etc. You will absolutely not be disappointed by this listening experience.

Excellent

On Beauty is beautifully written and excellently narrated - I think I heard about fifteen different well-done accents. I loved the plot delving into the academic world and revealing the surprisingly normal and flawed humans residing in it. I couldn't stop listening and will look for the author and narrator again.

YOU'LL FALL FOR THIS ONE

This is one of the finest among the hundreds of literary novels I've read and listened to over the years. Although most of Smith's characters are deeply flawed, they are palpably real. The novel, which focuses on two black professors (both originally from London) and their families, takes place at an elite, Northeastern liberal arts college (think Harvard). This locale provides Smith with the opportunity to address everything from intellectual elitism and the immorality of the entitled to the culture wars and the cynical morality of the political far right. The reader hired to play the characters in this novel is nothing short of brilliant. His range of voices and accents is incredible.

They become your family.

What did you love best about On Beauty?

Each character is sound and believable. The dialogue fits each person and gives each one his or her own color and shape. They embrace you with their knotty lives.

What was one of the most memorable moments of On Beauty?

Collene's departure.

Have you listened to any of Peter Francis James’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Not sure, but he is superlative in this book.

If you could take any character from On Beauty out to dinner, who would it be and why?

I would take Victoria because she is such a lost little girl who needs someone to listen to her.

How open Victoria was with her body and sexuality

The children were very angry at their father . I think they got too involved in their parents affairs.

Somewhat Disappointed

After reading the listener's reviews, some literary reviews, and learning that On Beauty was shortlisted for the Mann Booker Prize,I chose this for my previous "listen" only to be disappointed by the plot contrivances. Zadie Smith can write beautifully and with humor, but she has no qualms about manipulating the plot so the characters go to the places she needs them to be (e.g., Jerome to England to intern with Kipps, no less; The Kipps's to Wellington; the Belseys back to England for Christmas; etc.). There are too many coincidences for me to suspend my disbelief for long. Also, what makes Howard Belsey so appealing to beautiful poet laureates and young, hot students? He is characterized as one dry, repressed academician who can't even get enough students to attend his classes or finish a book so he can achieve tenure. On a positive note, there are many other interesting characters in the book. Also, the narration is quite good.

Well done

This book is marvelous, in part due to the fantastic reading by the narrator. He captures each character's voice and makes them come alive. The book is engrossing, funny and an extremely well done audiobook.

I loved it!

this is a great book by a great author...at times laugh out loud funny, at other times poignant, with uncomfortably familiar human situations...it's great

I'll look for future books from this author!

I really enjoyed this book and was sorry when it ended, even though it was one of the longest audiobooks I'd ever heard. I didn't feel any of the story dragged, and really cared about each of her characters. Women and men were represented in a balanced, three-dimentional way. The narrator was a very good choice and gave distinct voices to each of the characters. I think the end could have been better, but that's my only criticism -- and it still gets 5 stars from me.