“On Beauty”
by Zadie Smith
Published: September 2005
ISBN: 0670045276

(Updated: June 18, 2006.)

From the Publisher…

What are the truly beautiful things in life—and how far will you go to get them?

Howard Belsey is an Englishman abroad, an academic teaching in Wellington, a small college town in New England. Married young, thirty years later he is struggling to revive his love for his African-American wife, Kiki. Meanwhile, his three teenage children-Jerome, Zora and Levi-are each seeking the passions, ideals and commitments that will guide them through their own lives.

After Howard has a disastrous affair with a colleague, his sensitive eldest son, Jerome, escapes to England for the holidays. In London he defies everything the Belseys represent when he goes to work for Trinidadian right-wing academic and pundit, Monty Kipps. Taken in by the Kipps family for the summer, Jerome falls for Monty’s beautiful, capricious daughter, Victoria.

But this short-lived romance has long-lasting consequences, drawing these very different families into each other’s lives. As Kiki develops a friendship with Mrs Kipps, and Howard and Monty do battle on different sides of the culture war, hot-headed Zora brings a handsome young man from the Boston streets into their midst whom she is determined to draw into the fold of the black middle class—but at what price?

Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Zadie Smith’s third novel is a brilliant look at family life, marriage, the collision of the personal and political, and an honest look at people’s self-deceptions. It is also, as you might expect, very funny indeed.

What a wonderful book!

I had really wanted to really like White Teeth and, well, that didn’t work out well. (I actually unwittingly gave it two chances given that I purchased it twice quite sure that I would like it both times.) But this one, On Beauty is wonderful… yes, for my “exactly at this moment” tastes.

It is an examination of “meaning”… head meaning, heart meaning, long term versus momentary, life versus academic, then versus now, less versus more experienced “meaning”. I so believed and so welcomed getting to know these characters. Very much so. I found the book smart, wise, funny, like-able. Lovely. Definitely a five out of five hearts on my scale.