Swing Time

Within the first few pages of Swing Time I was affected, again, by Zadie Smith’s ability to make universal truths personal. The story is a complete portrait of our time – our complex relationships with social media, parents, race, politics and motivations are all exposed.

Told by an unnamed narrator, a female of Jamaican decent, the story centres on the complicated friendship of two women throughout their childhood and middle age in the housing estates of London. By dividing the fortunes of these two women, Smith has been able to define a generation that is left bereft and wanting. In her early adulthood, the narrator becomes a personal assistant to a (white) world-famous entertainer who dabbles in philanthropy in an African country. Through her decade long work with this star, the narrator is able to leave her upbringing and her friendship with her childhood friend, a talented dancer. It is here that the novel becomes its own anthropological study. Smith has used this novel, as well we all should, to explore the question that surely rankles us all: how are we to be good in a world full of consumerism and self-serving hubris?

Swing Time has its own rhythm and flow, twisting periods of time around as the narrator comes to terms with what is important and what has been lost. Smith’s writing is beautiful and multifaceted with meaning. This is an important novel and, for me, as breathtaking and emotionally moving as White Teeth. This is my book of the year.

Chris Gordon