Intimations by Zadie Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Without a doubt, the best book I have read this year. There are already a great number of reviews about this collection of short stories out there, so I wont’ talk too much about the stories themselves, but rather will just advocate to read it.
I have steered away from her books in the past, as I find her writing and language a bit too elevated and dense for me (that is a critique of me and not her) – I’m glad I gave this book a chance. Her essays capture the events of 2020 and the thoughts so many of us have been having in trying to make sense of it all, really well but without making strong positions. They are more set out in a frame of ‘food for thought’ with the exception of the last one which is pretty blunt about the contradictions of the American experience.
This is a great candidate for an afternoon read, on a weekend that you want to just completely veg out into a bit of a melancholy reflection of the past year. It was a comforting read to know that others are having similar thoughts and feelings.