BKMT READING GUIDES



 
Confusing,
Informative,
Pointless

2 reviews

NW: A Novel
by Zadie Smith

Published: 2012-09-04
Hardcover : 416 pages
1 member reading this now
5 clubs reading this now
1 member has read this book
New York Times Ten Best Books of 2012

?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

This is ...
No other editions available.
Add to Club Selections
Add to Possible Club Selections
Add to My Personal Queue
Jump to

Introduction

New York Times Ten Best Books of 2012

?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

This is the story of a city.

The northwest corner of a city. Here you’ll find guests and hosts, those with power and those without it, people who live somewhere special and others who live nowhere at all.  And many people in between.

Every city is like this. Cheek-by-jowl living. Separate worlds.

And then there are the visitations: the rare times a stranger crosses a threshold without permission or warning, causing a disruption in the whole system. Like the April afternoon a woman came to Leah Hanwell’s door, seeking help, disturbing the peace, forcing Leah out of her isolation?

Zadie Smith’s brilliant tragi-comic new novel follows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan ? as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their London is a complicated place, as beautiful as it is brutal, where the thoroughfares hide the back alleys and taking the high road can sometimes lead you to a dead end.

Depicting the modern urban zone ? familiar to town-dwellers everywhere ? Zadie Smith’s NW is a quietly devastating novel of encounters, mercurial and vital, like the city itself.

Editorial Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2012: Zadie Smith's NW, an ode to the neighborhoods of northwest London where the author came of age, feels like a work in progress. For most writers, that would be a detriment. But in this case, the sense of imperfection feels like a privilege: a peek inside the fascinating brain of one of the most interesting writers of her generation. Smith (White Teeth, On Beauty) plays extensively with form and style--moving from screenplay-like dialogue to extremely short stories, from the first person to the third--but her characters don't matter as much as their setting. Smith is a master of literary cinematography. It's easy to picture her creations, flaws ablaze, as they walk the streets of London. --Alexandra Foster

Excerpt

No Excerpt Currently Available

Discussion Questions

No discussion questions at this time.

Notes From the Author to the Bookclub

No notes at this time.

Book Club Recommendations

Member Reviews

Overall rating:
 
 
by lynne g. (see profile) 07/18/19

 
by carol g. (see profile) 08/11/18

 
  "It stinks"by Melanie R. (see profile) 07/23/13

Worst book I ever read.

 
  "Well... That was a waste of time"by Marcia R. (see profile) 07/16/13

I found myself to be mainly completely confused while reading this novel. I was really hoping that a character would come along that I really cared about, but that never happened. I don't understand how... (read more)

 
  "NW"by Glynn G. (see profile) 03/12/13

Difficult to follow. Unable to determine plot or purpose of book after reading 12 chapters, so I gave up. Several others in my book club disliked it as well, in fact no one liked it.

Rate this book
MEMBER LOGIN
Remember me
BECOME A MEMBER it's free

Book Club HQ to over 88,000+ book clubs and ready to welcome yours.

SEARCH OUR READING GUIDES Search
Search




FEATURED EVENTS
PAST AUTHOR CHATS
JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Get free weekly updates on top club picks, book giveaways, author events and more
Please wait...