Feel Free: Essays

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 sopho 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everything changes and this had taken the fight out of us somewhat Gathering in one place for the first time previously unpublished work, as well as already classic essays, such as, Joy, and, Find Your Beach, Feel Free offers a survey of important recent events in culture and politics, as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. Download Feel Free: Essays – kino-fada.fr Though I still haven t read any of her fiction, I really feel, on the strength of these essays, that Zadie Smith is My Kind Of People Her tone and references and outlook on life seem intimately familiar, drawn as they are, like mine, from that optimistic, multicultural jumble that was London in the 90s, when multicultural wasn t yet a dirty word and when most things were going steadily, boringly in the right direction Of course, her experiences of t...Writing exists for me at the intersection of three precarious uncertain elements language, the world, the selfI love this quote and I d gladly write my own essay with that as the starting point because it s so completely true I really can see this idea in Zadie Smith s fiction And Smith has many other brilliant ideas across this excellent collection of essays she is a remarkable woman with a very remarkable mind She expresses herself so clearly and so simply yet, with a great dealWriting exists for me at the intersection of three precarious uncertain elements language, the world, the selfI love this quote and I d gladly write my own essay with that as the starting point because it s so completely true I really can see this idea in Zadie Smith s fict...My full review, as well as my other thoughts on reading, can be found on my blog.A five part collection of cultural criticism, personal essays, and political writings, Feel Free showcases Zadie Smith s versatile range as a writer Smith takes on many topics, from Brexit and the politics of public space to Justin Bieber and the influence of teen idols The collection s eclecticism is its greatest strength and weakness there s something in here for everyone, but few will find all the essays of My full review, as well as my other thoughts on reading, can be found on my blog.A five part collection of cultural criticism, personal essays, and political writings, Feel Free showcases Zadie Smith s versatile range as a writer Smith takes on many topics, from Brexit and the poli...The essays in this book have been published before, mostly in the New York Review of Booksand The New Yorker, but it is quite something to see and read them all together One has the impression of a very talkative, precocious teenager who notices ceaselessly, has opinions on everything, and is curious what you think but wants to get her view out there first, in case you change her mind The flexibility of her mind and her fluency is the remarkable thing.Reviewers and other novelists will find The essays in this book have been published before, mostly in the New York Review of Booksand The New Yorker, but it is quite something to see and read them all together One has the impression of a very talkative, precocious teenager who notices ceaselessly, has opinions on everything, and is curious what you think but wants to get her view out there first, in case you change her mind The flexibility of her mind and her fluency is the remarkable thing.Reviewers and other novelists will find this collection important for how Smith structures her arguments, what she chooses to focus on, what she says about point of view and novelistic structure When one desires particularly bright conversation but doesn t have it to hand on an ordinary day, this collection is just the thing to provide food for thought I listened to the audio, produced by Penguin Audio and read oh so brilliantly by Nikki Amuka Bird This is a wonderful way to digest S...A mixed collection of essays the best are when Smith is discussing issues of politics the closure of public libraries, the Brexit vote where she brings a personal intimacy to national questions Less enticing are the musing essays where Smith responds to artworks, books, or plays with ideas such as how different dancers epitomize styles of authorship These pieces often have an interesting idea at their heart but they feel unstructured, sometimes unfinished,like entries in a writer s A mixed collection of essays the best are when Smith is discussing issues of politics the closure of public libraries, the Brexit vote where she brings a personal intimacy to national questions Less enticing are the musing essays where Smith responds to artworks, books, or plays with ideas such as how different dancers epitomize styles of authorship These pieces often have an interesting idea at their heart but they feel unstructured, sometimes unfinished,like entries in a ...Zadie Smith must have felt freer in writing this book She deals with a broad range of issues There is no single theme that runs through them There are essays that are quite ordinary I have expected farintellectually stimulating stuff from her For instance North West London Blues did not speak to me at all In reading this book, I also have the feeling that since she is so well known, no matter what she writes, she finds readers.However, some of the essays are brilliant For Zadie Smith must have felt freer in writing this book She deals with a broad range of issues There is n...There s enough here for any and everybody to enjoy Brava QueenI just found a writer that I absolutely adore I will read everything Smith writes from now on I m slightly embarrassed that I haven t read her until now If you read nothing else in this book of essays and reviews, you must read the one on Justin Bieber It s brilliant Though, there are quite a few not to be missed essays in this collection Reading this author, I felt full in the same way I do when I muse or write or leisurely read Woolf While I read the book cover to cover, you could do so I just found a writer that I absolutely adore I will read everything Smith writes from now on I m slightly embarrassed that I haven t read her until now If you read nothing else in this b...Read as one book it s a bit much to spend all that time in someone else s head, but enjoyed these essays. Writing exists for me at the intersection of three precarious, uncertain elements language, the world, the self The first is never wholly mine the second I can only ever know in a partial sense the third is a malleable and improvised response to the previous two If my writing is a psychodrama I don t think it is because I have, as the internet would have it, so many feels , but because the correct balance and weight to be given to each of these three elements is never self evident to me. Writing exists for me at the intersection of three precarious, uncertain elements language, the world, the self The first is never wholly mine the second I can only ever know in a partial sense the third is a malleable and improvised response to the previous two If my writing is a psychodrama I don t think it is because I have, as the internet would have it, so many feels , but because the correct balance and weight to be given to each of these three elements is never self evident to me It s thisself whose boundaries are uncertain, whose language is never pure, whose world is in no way self evident that I try to write from and to My hope is for a reader who, like the author, often wonders how free she really is, and who takes it for granted that reading involves all the same liberties and exigencies as writing In thirty one essays, divided into five loose categories, Zad...

• English
• 21 July 2019
Zadie Smith
• Kindle Edition
• 464 pages
• Zadie Smith
• Feel Free: Essays