Grand Union: Stories | 
pickI definitely liked this. In one story, she compares police brutality to witch hunts in a way that made my head explode. In a good way. I also felt like this was mostly autobiographical, possibly more so than her novels. At least, that's how it reads. And there was one story about a dude from Charlestown that bored me to death. So it's like every short story collection in that sense.
#AuthorAMonth with @Soubhiville
bailedI tried. I really tried, but this was just hanging uncomfortably over my head. I think Zadie is an author for authors and not so much an author for readers. 🤷🏻♀️ I liked Intimations, I mostly liked Feel Free, but I‘ve bailed on both this and Swing Time. I just think I‘m done with her fiction. #aam Onwards and upwards!
panThis collection felt very random and disconnected. The narration made it difficult to tell where one story ended and another began.
pan#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks #AuthorAMonth2021 @Soubhiville
I tried White Teeth by Zadie Smith when it came out and had a hard time getting into it. I was happy to give this author another chance. However, after finishing this collection, I still just don't think her writing is for me.
A couple stories in here I did really enjoy, like Lazy River, but most of them I forced myself to finish.
Love this article!
Disappointed though that my favourite (orange cream) doesn‘t get a recommendation 😮.
What‘s your favourite?
https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/december/quality-street-book-recommendat...
so-soThis collection of short stories were ok. I usually enjoy short stories but this collection did not work for me. I liked The Lazy River, Just Right, Miss Adele Amidst the Corsets, Big Week, Kelso Deconstructed, and Grand Union. These dealt with the absurdity of humanity #booked2020 #bookwithwhitebluetype #dogsoflitsy
bailedWell.... I even tried speeding up the narration because that usually helps when I don't care for the narrator's voice. Didn't work this time.
so-soShort stories by Zadie Smith. I didn‘t love the collection. The stories seemed random to me, no connection or theme. And the endings of a bunch of them seemed harsh and sudden.
pickSo as usual Zadie Smith‘s writing is wonderful, however I hungered for her longer stories. I did adore The Lazy River though.
I told him a story about a party I once attended, at which a man called me by another woman‘s name all night, mistaking me for her, maybe because she did the same sort of work as me. I didn‘t correct him, though we had met many times before. I tried to find it in myself to be insulted, to feel as others feel, to care as they would care, but instead I felt a strange lightness, like I‘d given myself the slip for the evening.
She walked through the city struck by these strange partnerships of the soft and the hard. In shops, in restaurants, in line at the CVS. She always had the same question. Why in God‘s name are you still married to this asshole? Lady, your children are grown. You have your own credit cards. You‘re the one with life force. Can‘t you see he‘s just a piece of the furniture? It‘s not 1850. This is New York. Run, baby, run!
They said, This might look like a war between men and women, but what this really is is the last siege of a ruling class. See Brett up there making that little bitchbaby face? See that? That‘s the face a baby makes when you try and take his rattle away. We‘ve had many, many babies so we‘re familiar. America being the rattle in this analogy.
... on one occasion, a book, held only for the duration of the photograph and – though perhaps only I noticed this – upside down. As they prep, each wears a heartbreaking pair of plain black spectacles. Once each girl is ready to pose, she hands her glasses to her sister. It is easy to say they make being young look like hard work, but wasn‘t it always hard work, even if the medium of its difficulty was different?
pickI have a new appreciation for short stories. It‘s such a different platform that a novel. Without having to worry so much about plot and characters they pack a real punch when making a statement about the state of our world. Zadie Smith is brilliant. I loved this book so much.
