"You will never write this well": A review of Zadie Smith's NW

In an essay on minimalist writer Amy Hempel, Chuck Palahniuk notes that the take home lesson from her short story “The Harvest” is that “you will never write this well”. I find this aphorism most appropriate every time I put down a Zadie Smith novel. Her newest contribution to the destruction of my self-esteem is entitled NW, and you should go and buy it. Right now.

Zadie Smith emerged onto the literary scene in 2000 with the brilliant White Teeth.  I think I am safe in speaking for the literary community when I say that this novel is mind bendingly brilliant. I have seen it on countless “Top x lists of x” and have had it recommended to me by at least 3 professors, so I think my sample size is pretty reliable. And I have read it. I have read it forwards and backwards, I have read in between the lines and I have tortured myself over every word. Zadie Smith wrote this novel in her early 20s. The same age I was when I read it. White Teeth is a coming of age story, but when I say coming of age, I mean coming into any and every age. It is a story of London, and of race in London, and consequentially, post-colonialism. White Teeth taught me, or brought me, to think in unfamiliar terms considering race and gender. Most of all, Zadie Smith and White Teeth taught me about the fine line between inspiration and desperation.

But this review is not about White Teeth. I found it necessary to start with White Teeth, however, because NW is in some ways a follow-up, a more focused thesis into the same issues, same narratives that were previously incited. NW refers to North West London, which is perhaps the largest key in interpreting the social significance of this novel. Smith brilliantly brings into focus the intersections between race, gender, and socioeconomic status by applying geographic scale to the narrative. The area from which the characters hale do far more to give them context then almost anything else that they could do or say. For example, the characters are wont say things like, “I don’t go S”, or describe people as, “more N than NW”. This form of characterization in itself should not be a surprise to us: here I can direct you to the countless studies between the index in socioeconomic status and country in the world, or even in various neighborhoods and cities.

I am also very impressed by the way in which Smith continues to play with the format of the text. The narratives of each individual character each appear differently on the page, and in a way add a deeper level of understanding to the character. A stand out example of this experimentation with form is the delineation of chronology through lingual fad phases like “literally”, or the equivalency between the phrase “In Africa” as a referent to an earlier point in time.

One of my favourite things about NW is its awareness of its predecessor, White Teeth. I caught two character references to White Teeth in NW (Mrs. Iqbal and Irie). This consciousness of what came before is very well suited to a story set in and about London, a city that has transformed and grown through the ages. To me, these character references evoked a sense of nostalgia, and I am nothing if not nostalgic.