The background
Zadie Smith’s much-anticipated fourth novel, NW, sees the White Teeth writer return to north-west London, following four people who have grown up on the same council estate.
Smith falls short
“The real mystery of NW is that it falls so far short of being a successful novel, though it contains the makings of three or four,” wrote Adam Mars-Jones in The Guardian. Mars-Jones pointed to a certain “indecision” throughout the novel: “The conflicts within the writer are deeper than the ones she has devised for her characters.”
Style over content?
Kathryn Schulz suggested Smith had overused stylistic tricks in Vulture: “Short of a PowerPoint presentation, which was already spoken for, there’s almost no stylistic tactic she doesn’t try here: lists, Gchats, menus, Mapquest-style directions, stream of consciousness.” According to Schulz, the problem is that none of these ‘experimental’ tricks are actually new or innovative. “It’s frustrating, watching such a giant talent seek out new options, only to settle on ones that too often diminish her work,” Schulz said.
Contrived and self-conscious
Lauren Elkin was also unimpressed by Smith’s stylistic play in The Daily Beast: “For all Smith’s careful attention to place and to world-building, all of these techniques still feel self-conscious, making her attempts to wrest meaning from the way these characters weave in and out of each others’ lives feel contrived.” However, Elkin found much to admire in Smith’s evocation of London, particularly her feel for North London dialect: “Smith’s attention to the power of language, and the subtle iterations of the Northwest Londoner’s patois, constitutes one of the novel’s greatest strengths.”
Novel of the year
Philip Hensher was unequivocal in his praise for NW in The Telegraph: “It is a joyous, optimistic, angry masterpiece, and no better English novel will be published this year, or, probably, next.” Hensher predicted that NW would leave a significant legacy: “In a hundred years time, when readers want to understand what the English novel was capable of, and what English life truly felt like, they will look at NW, and warm to it.”