Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    On Beauty: A Novel
    Unavailable
    On Beauty: A Novel
    Unavailable
    On Beauty: A Novel
    Audiobook18 hours

    On Beauty: A Novel

    Written by Zadie Smith

    Narrated by Peter Francis James

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 8, 2005
    ISBN9780786563975
    Unavailable
    On Beauty: A Novel

    Related to On Beauty

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Meet The Maker

      Feb 17, 2022

      Meet The Maker
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Wild Welcome

      Jan 27, 2021

      A Wild Welcome
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Power Of Two

      Mar 16, 2022

      The Power Of Two
      3 min read

    • Article

      James Camp

      Jun 20, 2022

      James Camp
      3 min read

    • Article

      How’s It Going?

      May 12, 2023

      VIDEO CONTENT TAP HERE to watch Helen Tovey’s welcome & introduction Just checking in with you, to see how your ‘2023’ is going. The June issue of Family Tree already!? Crikey – it seems as though this year is following in the footsteps of previous o

      1 min read

    • Article

      Online Food Market

      Sep 1, 2022

      Pellicle is a UK website and podcast devoted to beer, wine, cider, food and travel. It was established in 2019 by Matthew Curtis, editor-in-chief (beer and cider) and Johnny Hamilton editor-in-chief (wine and food), who have since been joined by asso

      2 min read

    • Article

      Family Matters

      Feb 2, 2021

      Family Matters
      2 min read

    • Article

      Your Letters

      Apr 9, 2019

      After reading “Launch Plan” (Mar/Apr ’19), I’ve been thinking of the things that have gone wrong with my boat launches. When you get to the ramp, I suggest unhooking the trailer lights. The water and the lights don’t get along. I keep forgetting this

      5 min read

    • Article

      Keeping It In The Family

      Apr 16, 2020

      Keeping It In The Family
      6 min read

    • Article

      Onward And Upward

      May 17, 2021

      Onward And Upward
      3 min read

    • Article

      A pair OF ACES

      Aug 1, 2020

      The Chad Reed story was always a team effort, from the time Ellie Reed was his high-school sweetheart. The pair left Australia in 2001 to take on the world. First Europe and then America. Still only just kids in the big scheme of things, there was a

      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘ I was Swindled ’

      Mar 16, 2020

      Deep in financial ruin thanks to a con artist and failed business schemes, Lizl Naude was in despair. But she found within herself a creative spark that has saved the day. What has her journey been? Lizl told her story to Kat Farquharson: No child

      4 min read

    • Article

      Fatherhood Above The Sun

      Mar 8, 2024

      Fatherhood Above The Sun
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Nation Asks The Trust

      Dec 30, 2020

      Do you have a favourite object from the National Trust’s collections? Ian Charles That’s like being asked to choose your favourite child! There are so many, but a great place to start is our forthcoming book— 125 Treasures from the Collections of t

      6 min read

    • Article

      Comic Relief Red Nose Day Friday 15 March

      Mar 1, 2024

      Join us to Do Something Funny for Money on Friday 15 March. Do something silly. Do something daft. Raise a smile, a laugh and a whole load of cash. We think teachers are brilliant and when you come together, you’re unstoppable. It’s you who make Red

      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘They Will All Be Judged Equally’

      Mar 11, 2021

      alexandra.robinson@futurenet.com @alexrob_journo_ AT last, along with the sunshine, we have light at the end of this horrendous Covid-19-driven tunnel. We finally have a plan in place for us to return to some form of normality, as long as we can cont

      3 min read

    • Article

      Your Pick Me Ups

      Jul 9, 2020

      Your Pick Me Ups
      3 min read

    • Article

      Over To You LETTERS ON THE January ISSUE

      Feb 14, 2023

      LETTER OF THE MONTH I enjoyed your entertainment feature on Sir Rod Stewart. Sir Rod is, of course, in my opinion, the most brilliant rock and pop singer and songwriter. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, I have loved his music from way back.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Besties, Biers and Snacks

      Jun 16, 2022

      My vestie (vegan bestie), Sammy, recently moved back home to the UK from Dubai at the same time that I was taking annual leave from work. This is why we are mates — we are aligned! With gig tickets booked, nights out and a stay at a seaside caravan p

      3 min read

    • Article

      Bird’s Words

      Apr 24, 2023

      At times I sit and go through the history of The Big Issue. I try and take as objective a view as I can. Recently I sat on a park bench by my local river and reconstructed from memory all of those that had helped lead The Big Issue from its stumbling

      4 min read

    • Article

      Hello And A Warm Welcome…

      Sep 2, 2020

      Hello And A Warm Welcome…
      1 min read

    • Article

      Distilled For Discussion

      Dec 2, 2022

      Distilled For Discussion
      4 min read

    • Article

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own

      May 18, 2021

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own
      3 min read

    • Article

      Steeped In Culture

      Oct 11, 2017

      It wasn’t so long ago that we invited each other over for tea, or arranged social outings in tearooms around town. Today, we talk of “going for coffee” or “meeting at a cafe” because the bean’s influence is so prevalent on our daily lives and vernacu

      4 min read

    • Article

      Letter From The Editor

      Dec 7, 2018

      Letter From The Editor
      3 min read

    • Article

      Calling Budding Nature Writers

      Apr 8, 2021

      Calling Budding Nature Writers
      2 min read

    Reviews for On Beauty

    3.5/5

    2,195 ratings115 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      This novel embodied a new hope on many fronts. the fact that work proved flat served the reptile Jon that most of these other entrprises trumpeting progress were just as inept. Most proved to be more corrupt and vain than simply flat, but alas the novel stills trails these associations.
    • 3/5
      A multi character narrative that doesn't always compute but has something to say.
    • 4/5
      I wanted to scream at a few characters several times in this book, which I'll just put down to Zadie Smith's excellent writing and realistic characters. This is a tale of two families, who don't necessarily get along perfectly, but who live and work within the same community and have a strong connection. Humor is definitely present, as many characters end up in situations only one step removed from ridiculous. As I was reading, I had to double-check the publication date (it was earlier than I expected), as this novel clearly emerged from a particular era, but remains relevant (if not more so) today.
    • 5/5
      Great characterization. Exceptional writing.
    • 3/5
      There was nothing wrong with this book. Only, it seemed like an unenthusiastic magic trick. Deft and impressive, but not very exciting.
    • 3/5
      i love hearing zadie smith talk; i think she's a brilliant thinker, and a classic reader. (not to mention a fantastic dresser.) i'd much rather she start publishing nonfiction, because her fiction is good with some great moments, but never truly great. her introduction to the 'best american nonrequired reading' anthology a few years back is a good example of what she can do when writing well about reading.

    • 4/5
      She is one of the few writers who can actually make me interested in a typical 'literary' novel that's just about some random people's lives without any robots or opera singers or natural disasters or anything.
      The characters in this novel are fascinatingly complex, and the themes of race and class in--wait, is that something shiny over there? Maybe it's a robot! Back later! Bye!
    • 3/5
      Definitely witty, but not really lovable. This spot-on satire of the world of universities and academia is laugh-out-loud funny. However, I found most of the characters unlikable, and any attempts to make them relatable - Zora's unrequited crush, for example - just made them seem pathetic. I know that this book is an homage to Howards End, and some scenes are pretty much lifted from the original, but I think it ultimately failed to deliver Forster's message of "Only connect."
    • 4/5
      This is a family drama involving a mixed race couple and their three children in the rarified and competitive world of a college campus. All the disparate lives and loves of the characters are explored , with the childrens' perspectives as the most interesting. The father figures were all pretty loathsome personalities with the female protagonists having the most depth of character. The drama of these difficult and fractious lives are fun to explore.
    • 4/5
      I slowly came to like this book. The characters gradually grew on me, at least those I felt sympathy for. An interesting story of a family in an almost critical state and how they deal with themselves and their outside influences. I could not tune in to Howard or Victoria at all however. An interesting book, looking at different types of beauty. Glad I've read it.
    • 4/5
      This novel is illuminated throughout with glorious, deep, sparkling prose, but I didn't "like the tomato." Most of the characters were unlikable and the plot somewhat unbelievable. What was supposed to be a satire of academia just seemed ridiculous in places; it's a stretch of the imagination to believe that a professor could get an archivist's position created just to placate an unqualified undergraduate who might make trouble, and that the university would both approve such a thing and let an undergrad fill it without doing a search for, oh, I don't know, somebody with at least a master's in library and information science. For all of the focus on race and social justice in the book, I found it disappointing that a plus-size character, one of the only sympathetic ones in the story, was so often reduced to her size. The rambling details of the plot also took far too long to relate to each other. This is the kind of work you read if you want to study writing, but not necessarily if you want to enjoy it.
    • 4/5
      Oh Zadie Smith, write more! Write more! This book pulled me out of a reading slump. It takes a lot of skill to be intelligent, funny, and sad all at once, but Zadie pulls it off with aplomb.

      I was sad to see this book end.
    • 4/5
      Zadie Smith writes like real people talk- she has a sensitive ear for dialogue which makes this book very enjoyable to read. Her two main characters are the inter- racial couple, Howard and Kiki, both of whom she portrays realistically and with enough sympathy , that the reader can connect with them and their roller coaster of a marriage. The other characters are their children who take a less prominent yet important role in this story of relationships. 4 out of 5 for being entertaining without being too heavy.
    • 4/5
      On the surface, On Beauty is about two families, the Belseys and the Kips. Both are academic families with the fathers holding positions as professors - Howard Belsey at a Boston college and Monty Kip in the UK. Not only do they differ in their opinions of art, they are radically opposed on the political spectrum with Monty holding up the views of a religious right-wing conservative and Belsey playing the role of the liberal academic. The characters in this book are diverse and complex and the issues covered are equally broad. Although the plot mostly revolves around marital fidelity, the book raises many questions about race and policies like affirmative action and the cultural divide between the ultra-religious and the liberal intelligentsia. Definitely a book that had me thinking about race and the loss of identity experienced in interracial marriage. My major complaint about this book is that it covers too many issues and seemed to lack cohesion or finality. But maybe the messy indeterminate ending is appropriate for our crazy and diverse society.
    • 5/5
      A dysfunctional academic family, headed by a dysfunctional academic, fights intellectual, academic, and personal battles. Howard Belsey finds himself teaching at the same institution as his arch-rival. More disastrously, he finds himself infatuated with his rival's college-age daughter. Victoria Kipps is a bit of a temptress, and Howard has no ability to control himself. Add to this equation Howard's long-suffering wife, Kiki, his academic superstar daughter Zora, one son competing with his father for Victoria, another fighting political battles he doesn't understand, and it becomes clear that this family is on the fast-track to disaster. The book is set in what looks very much like Wellesley, Massachusetts, and I kept thinking that the school was modeled on Wellesley College (it's co-ed, but in all other respects seems a match). At least, that's how I kept envisioning it. I enjoyed the academic setting of this book, and absurdities of that world, which Smith details well. There were many times during the book when I simply wanted to hit Howard. I learned that I have very little tolerance for the weak-male mid-life crisis. I also occasionally wanted to smack Zora, who has a tendency towards the obnoxious. So, the characters are not exactly likable, hardly so. It says something that despite that I enjoyed this book very much.
    • 4/5
      "On Beauty" won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2006 -- therefore I had very high hopes for this read. However, my response to the novel was a mixed bag, so to say.I liked the idea of the plot -- two dueling professors whose long history of debates and differing views color their lives and family interactions. I loved the idea that one of the families was a conservative black family while the other family was a liberal mixed race family. All in all, from the descriptions I should have LOVED this book. Let me clarify -- I did not hate "On Beauty" but it was not a love affair :)I think where my lackluster response is rooted is in the characters here. The main character has very little growth and remains mostly unlikeable (in my humble opinion anyway). I loved the Keke character but I wanted her to have a different outcome. Some of the other characters were either totally irritating or dropped out of the story line too soon (I wanted more Jerome!).I would say that Smith's writing is beautiful in places. She described a setting in England and I could see it in my mind perfectly. I just couldn't love the novel when I disliked so much of her characterizations.
    • 2/5
      Looks ‘weighty’, but it’s not profound, nor very insightful. To me the characters and their motivations seem neither deep nor plausible – rather like the findings of the psychoanalyst (Dr Byford here) that the author cites with apparent conviction. But perhaps that’s the same in Smith’s homagee E.M. Forster; it’s so long since I read him, I can’t recall his work un-MerchantIvoried. Smith’s aim here is set out in the opening lines’ knowing reference to Howard’s End (a clever touch but there are few instances of pizzazz in the book after that). This reference is echoed in the name of one of the lead characters: 'Howard'. But I was struck as much by resemblances to another lead, the Howard Kirk of Bradbury's History Man: another smug and self-serving follower of liberal fairy tales, iconoclastic, although he with a bit more chutzpah. This mode of liberal delusion, more than class or race, is the most salient disconnect here. As for the ‘Beauty’ theme, I didn’t fully grasp what was intended: perhaps it explains in part the extended treatment of Rembrandt’s work in this book? Just as this reader was about to fling in the towel (p 263 or so), ‘On Beauty’ does get going with some interestingly charged connects – Zora/Howard, Kiki/Carlene (impulsiveness/propriety ), and then too the over-freighted little images of disconnects (Kiki left holding her departed friend’s hot chocolate). In the end, the book is tied up satisfactorily with a fair balance of resolution of connects and only/dis-connects. Overall, the effect is a bit wearying, but the writing is mature and confident. At times, the dialogue does become ‘writer-y’. And although some of the couplings seem unlikely, the sex itself is pretty plausible.
    • 4/5
      Peter Francis James does an outstanding narration of On Beauty. The Belsey family is recovering from their father Howard's admission of a one-night stand. Kiki, the mother, is the emotional rock of the family, so her pain radiates to everyone. The young adult children (adult children is the weirdest phrase but I don't have a better one) have taken sides. Jerome, the oldest, sides with Kiki but needs distance before he can deal with his father. He spends a year in London and ends up living with the family of his father's academic rival and falling in love with their daughter. Zora, a sophomore at Wellington where her father is a professor, defends Howard at all costs. Levi, the youngest, tries to ignore the family drama as he pretends he's from the "hood." Complicating matters even more is the fact that Kiki is a stereotype of an overweight southern black woman, and Howard is a caricature of a white Englishman who never lost his accent and has no connection with/understanding of his "black" children. This rich, liberal, atheist family curses in their regular conversations, and the children call their parents by their first names. They discuss everything, but they don't go beyond the surface of anything important.Howard's academic rival is a Black British evangelical, and after Jerome's disastrous stay with them in London, the family moves to Massachusetts when Monty, the father, is granted a visiting professorship at Wellington. Drama on the college campus ensues.Although I enjoyed the audiobook, some parts were jarring. The characters did not grow or develop. Howard's self-centeredness, self-pity and refusal to handle his supposed loved ones with care was absolutely infuriating! At first I thought it was an unrealistic character portrayal, but then I realized that I know some people like that who just refuse to take responsibility for their actions and who feel victimized even when they are the ones causing pain for others. And there are certainly women who tolerate disrespect whether it's disguised with "objectivity" or thrown in their faces.I didn't understand why Jerome was a peripheral character because he had so much potential. Embracing Christianity despite his father's ridicule, being open and tolerant of other's ideas, supporting his mom during her emotional turmoil made him seem real, but Smith didn't do anything to flesh him out. Zora was a brat and entitled and I did not like her. I thought she should have matured some by the end of the book and I didn't see it. Poor Levi was just not believable. Any real thug could spot a faker like him a mile away, but he manages to be accepted as genuine wherever he goes.The ending was abrupt. I played the last CD twice because I thought I missed something. Why was the book called On Beauty? The poem by that title in the book seemed so arbitrary. Victoria had a great body and her ass was beautiful, according to everyone who saw her, and the painting that Kiki loved was of a beautiful woman, but I didn't see beauty as an overall theme of the book. Maybe I missed something.
    • 4/5
      On Beauty is about two families on opposing sides of the culture war: The atheist, liberal Belseys on one side and the ultra-religious, ultra-conservative Kipps' on the other. It's also about race and racial identity: black versus white, academic life and intellectualism and the hypocrisy of those the "firm ideals". Though I found the book well written I found it difficult to like many of the main characters, particularly Howard and Zora. These two characters show the hypocrisy of their lives and beliefs and their lack of real emotional intelligence or empathy. The characters I was able to connect with were Kiki, Levi and Carlene--who show real growth and understanding of their lives. They were the real redemption of this novel. 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
    • 5/5
      On Beauty is marvelous fiction. Though it may seem to be a novel about Big Ideas –– race, politics, love, &ct. –– its real appeal lies in Smith's consistent and extraordinary ability to perfectly yet novelly articulate life. More than anything else, it is this observational acuity that draws the reader in and propels the novel forward –– and compensates for its "flaws": its contrived plot, its neglect of certain characters, its lack of any strong message (not actually a bad thing). The book's major players are vile and/or pitiable, yet Smith's honest portrayals ensure that they are, first and foremost, human. And therein lies On Beauty's true strength: not as a scathing piece of social satire (it isn't), nor as a repository of contemporary commentary (which, if it is, it is only incidentally), but as a beautiful depiction of a small sliver of human life. Plus, it's damn entertaining.Make no mistakes: On Beauty is far from all you could want out of a novel. Yet it has so much, and so much of the most important and rarest things, and that's what makes it such an exquisite work.
    • 2/5
      Starts strong, loses steam. Too long. Just like White Teeth. I think I'm done with Zadie Smith until she writes a novella.
    • 2/5
      a good story, one of those about "people being people", though it was a bit boring at times.
    • 5/5
      Another book which captures personalities, places and ways of speaking in just the way that White Teeth did, and on a broader scale. Enjoyable, funny and also sad and frustrating (in the way that the characters are sometimes so wilfully wrong) this definitely makes me feel that I want to read everything Zadie Smith has or will write for some time to come. It's not all at that level of complete perfection - one or two scenes in the US college didn't quite ring true and I felt peculiarly let down by the last chapter or two, but these are not so much flaws as points where the book slips from being excellent to just very good.
    • 4/5
      Zadie Smith's third novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2006. This "campus novel" is a homage to the well-crafted work of E.M. Forster, particularly "Howard's End," and also offers knowing nods to Elaine Scarry's brief philosophical essay "On Beauty and Being Just" and Simon Schama's voluminous "Rembrandt's Eyes." The plot, set in the privileged milieu of an east coast Ivy League college, clevely navigates through the shoals of race, politics and aesthetics. There's also a lovely interlude in post-modern and post-racial London. Ultimately, "On Beauty" doesn't reach any new lands, but Smith successfully avoids both the maelstrom of contentiousness and the doldrums of predictability.
    • 3/5
      I read this book after finishing an essay by Zadie Smith in which she says this novel is a retelling of Howard's End. The connection with Howard's End is certainly there, but the characters in this novel didn't ring as true to me.
    • 4/5
      A retelling of Howards End, Smith deftly recasts Forster's characters in today's age and sensibilities. Some bits I found a little off (Carlene's bequest to Kiki, for instance, seemed a little out of place) but overall, as a self-proclaimed "homage" to Howards End, Smith created an admirable work.If you are familiar with Forster's Howards End, I think you'll get more from On Beauty. While it doesn't follow the original exactly, Smith does take enough from Howards End that much of her story will make better sense if you've read the other first. It is interesting to see how Smith reworks some of the social structure. Instead of being a book about social classes and the differences therein, Smith reworked the story to become more a study about liberal versus conservative sensibilities. She still touches on the class differences in several ways, between the students that can't afford to attend college, and the Haitian immigrants who are trying to get fair treatment in the US.To be honest however, by the end of the book I really didn't care what happened to the characters one way or the other. I'm not really sure what happened there, but by the last half dozen or so chapters, I lost all interest in what was happening. The book is still incredibly well written, I think I just grew tired of the constant string of lies and deceit that seemed to stream through the Belsey household. There also seemed to be a lot of build up to the eventual confrontation between the two families, and when it did finally happen, it happened quickly and without much fanfare. It seemed like the book was well-paced right up to the end, and then Smith rushed the story to it's conclusion.I'm not sorry that I read the book; I just think I would have enjoyed a little better pacing at the end of the book.
    • 3/5
      It was an OK read, but nothing special. I didn't find it humorous, I don't think it really did much in terms of social or culture wars. It seemed to be more about the end of a marriage, when it becomes just a tired ritual, rather than anything with value or feeling. I was interested in the lives of the characters, but didn't actually care about them. They were closed, and self-absorbed, and nasty to each other. The children of mixed race and culture and seemed to personify the 3 standard options, rather than actual people: 1. The urge to be very 'Street' to validate your blackness (Levi); 2. The urge to be very smart and better than anyone else to prove your blackness isn't a handicap (Zora); 3. The inability to decide what to do or who you are so your are drifting, dreamy, and reaching for something outside yourself to belong to- Christianity (Jerome). I thought Howard was a typical burnt-out bitter academic, who has no actual theory or discovery of his own, so he dedicated himself to trashing others. He uses his anger, disappointment and hatred as a weapon to not only denigrate the works of others, but to prove his own superiority. As though anyone with a different opinion and an ounce of feeling is somehow lacking in brains and the ability to think rationally.Kiki is the standard black earth-mother, queen, home-goddess. Ho hum, such cliches.I thought the ending was a fizzle in terms of story, even if Howard has an epiphany. I thought the writing was awkward and stiff, and the attempt to create American characters and dialog, didn't quite make it. Also the depiction of the inner life of an American college was not what I would consider accurate. Especially a New England college. Still it was interesting, but I am glad its over, and have no real interest in anything else by Smith.
    • 2/5
      I am listening to the CD version of this book. At first I was dismayed by the bland white American narrator, but he does an amazing job with the great variety of accents.While listening, and raking leaves, I had a flashback to shoveling the snow last winter, and listening to Howard's End. I started to notice more and more similarities and had to check here to see, yes, that is not a secret, this book is basically an updating of Forster's novel. I loved the Forster novel and Smith has a hard act to follow. His book is still relevant and the characters and places so much more fully developed than Smith's: I just don't see the point of this except as a private literary exercise. Ok, so it's fun wondering "what will a person leave behind at this concert so they have to come in contact with the family?" and "Does it matter that it is Mozart's Requiem rather than Beethoven's Fifth that they are listening to"? Oh an English major's delight! We'll see.
    • 4/5
      (3.5 stars)

      I don't often feel this way about books but I felt at an inherent disadvantage reading this as a white girl. The main ideas explored have so much to do with race and racial conflicts in particular. Set primarily in Boston, it concerns a marriage between a white professor and a black woman and their kids who struggle to fit into their world. For example, the younger of the two brothers who wants to talk "street" but is ashamed that he lives in an upper middle class area of Boston. The idea is to not be privileged and when he runs into some Haitians, he's even more convinced that he shouldn't be living in his current rich neighborhood. There are questions of beauty too, as the subject suggests both in terms of the wife and mother of the family and a work of Rembrandt's (I've always hated that artist, I have to admit, which made it much more difficult for me to enjoy the book in some sections.)


      Besides delving into the politics of Haiti, the book also speaks about affirmative action with two angry professors. The one who opposes the other speaking out on affirmative action doesn't want to tread on democracy but he's torn to say the least. Both arguments-for and against affirmative action are stated and perhaps the most powerful is the one in which suggests that issues of class became more important to politicians like Condi than their race.


      You also have alot of immorality from both sides-the Christian right wing and the completely liberal. Affairs abound and it seems poorly written at this point...too stereotypical and uncreative. Predictable. Really, the only person who is without artifice and could be described as beautiful is the professor's wife and the mother of the story who is a feminist to her core even if she's not an intellectual. Despite her weight, she's a rather proud woman who cherishes her children and is forgiving as possible about many things.


      Without giving away too much, the book also doesn't really leave you with a definitive ending. Though it's clever the way she it finishes, I felt overall a little disappointed even though it vaguely reminds me of The Crying of Lot 49 in terms of that anticipation. But then again, as I said before I really couldn't care less about Rembrandt. Overall, I was more impressed wth The Autograph Man...still have to finish White Teeth.
    • 3/5
      I had a hard time getting into this book at first, mostly because of the elliptical way the characters talk to each other. Either the writer mellowed out, or I got used to her style, because the book began to work for me, and I ended up enjoying it very much. It’s the story of an art professor and his family in a New England university town. Theirs is an interracial marriage in a mostly all-white environment, and this is an underlying theme, treated with subtlety. The professor’s strict academic rejection of popular taste is another theme, and all the characters bounce off of it to some degree.

      Some of the characters are not quite realized, but the professor and his wife, Kiki, are both very richly drawn. Kiki is especially beautiful and fascinating, and she’s a good foil for her rather fatuous husband, her rigidly ambitious daughter, and her two sons. Both sons are looking for some source of hope, one through religion and one through street politics. Kiki, meanwhile, is all about living fully in an environment that keeps buttoning everyone up.