Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism
A New York Times Notable Book From Zadie Smith, one of the most
beloved authors of her generation, a new collection of essays Since
she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two
decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of
the world's preeminent fiction writers, but also a brilliant and
singular essayist. She contributes regularly to The New Yorker and
the New York Review of Books on a range of subjects, and each piece
of hers is a literary event in its own right. Arranged into five
sections--In the World, In the Audience, In the Gallery, On the
Bookshelf, and Feel Free--this new collection poses questions we
immediately recognize. What is The Social Network--and Facebook
itself--really about? "It's a cruel portrait of us: 500 million
sentient people entrapped in the recent careless thoughts of a
Harvard sophomore." Why do we love libraries? "Well-run libraries
are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be
easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not
have to buy anything in order to stay." What will we tell our
granddaughters about our collective failure to address global
warming? "So I might say to her, look: the thing you have to
appreciate is that we'd just been through a century of relativism
and deconstruction, in which we were informed that most of our
fondest-held principles were either uncertain or simple wishful
thinking, and in many areas of our lives we had already been asked
to accept that nothing is essential and everything changes--and
this had taken the fight out of us somewhat." Gathering in one
place for the first time previously unpublished work, as well as
already classic essays, such as, "Joy," and, "Find Your Beach,"
Feel Free offers a survey of important recent events in culture and
politics, as well as Smith's own life. Equally at home in the world
of good books and bad politics, Brooklyn-born rappers and the work
of Swiss novelists, she is by turns wry, heartfelt, indignant, and
incisive--and never any less than perfect company. This is literary
journalism at its zenith. Zadie Smith's new book, Grand Union, is
on sale 10/8/2019.
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