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) 

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

two thumbs up

I thoroughly enjoyed this-- the experience was greatly enhanced by the narration, which was truly outstanding. Great characters & portrait of marriage, family life, the personal and political.

Only if you're a fan of Smith

I only recommend this if you're a fan of Zadie Smith. The narration is excellent, but like many of her books her characters are the main focus rather than an entralling plot.

listening better than reading?

I really enjoyed this audio book -- it's very long, though, so is a major time commitment. I liked it more than friends who read the book liked it, leading me to believe that when you can be carried along by the good performance you can overlook some clunky plot stuff.

Don't Make it End!

This book is so fabulously written, with rich and poignant metaphor and simile, humor and a
BIG HEART and observant eye for life, that I
find myself listening in the car on the whole
5 minute trip to the high school and back. The
narration is almost as remarkable as the writing! Don't miss this one...and waiting to
find White Teeth and anything else Smith has ever written available on Audible soon!!

good narrator - relationships tough to buy

The narrator is excellent, and does a good job navigating a variety of accents.

This is my first encounter with Smith's writing. The wide spread of character types made the relationship dynamics tough to buy. The members of the Belsey (sp?) household didn't seem to share any common traits or know much about each other. The academians wore on me. Like "cweather" I found it hard to accept that the dry teacher, Howard, could be alluring to the hottest young student in the story.
There were some interesting subplots - like Carl's foray into musical study, and Kiki's development.

Just not the tale for me...

I only finished listening, because I had already logged the hours to get through the first 2/3rds.

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.

great book

interesting characters, very well written. thoroughly enjoyed this book. if you like high quality fiction, you'll love this book.