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Zadie Smith writes of what she knows: London, family, female relationships, and what it is to be multi-racial within these contexts. In doing so, she produces a distinctly human portrayal of the times in which we live. Her new novel Swing Time – like her previous books On Beauty, White Teeth, and NW – centres on the theme of identity, both cultural and political, and its ability to be shaped by the worlds in which we exist.
Smith’s novel begins in London, which could perhaps be seen as a character itself in her writing. At the heart of the story is a friendship between two girls. Through the unnamed narrator of the story and her childhood friend Tracey, Smith explores the way in which this friendship evolves and modulates as they grow from children to adults, demonstrating its effect on the narrator and the way in which her life develops. The two children come together in standing out at a local dance class. The narrator notes that “our shade of brown was exactly the same – as if one piece of tan material had been cut to make us both.” The novel spans several decades as our narrator seeks to carve out a sense of place for herself, growing up to become a personal assistant to an international pop star who goes by the lone moniker “Aimee”.
Our narrator remains an unnamed figure despite being a core component of the story, which serves to lend a degree of fragility and uncertainty to the way she defines herself, or, perhaps, the way in which she is defined by others. Her being is very much dependent on the relationships with other characters in the story, which brings to mind the old adage, “show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are.” In leaving the narrator anonymous, maybe Smith seeks to interrogate the ways in which we classify an individual as a person, for a name is considered to be an integral element of an individual’s being. In this instance, however, Smith seems to disregard this notion, almost deeming it irrelevant. Instead, her writing implies that a name amounts for little in describing who and what a person actually is. After all, of what significance is a name in comparison with a life lived, memories made, relationships with others, and personal thoughts? Smith builds our narrator’s identity in a mosaic like way, charting her life through the lens of her interactions with three key female figures; Tracey, Aimee, and her mother. Identity is something that never quite settles, it is always relative to something else and never absolute. Tracey is the best dancer in dance class, but in making the move to being a professional dancer, she never quite manages to make it beyond the chorus line. In London, our mixed race narrator is ‘brown,’ yet in an unspecified West African village, she is ‘white.’ Smith advances a concept of identity as being something in a state of perpetual flux.
I liked this book, but then again, I like Zadie Smith. I found this novel to be an in-depth exploration of female friendships and relationships. However the first person narrative is slightly lacking at times, restrained in terms of the perspective it gives on the action. Perhaps this is excusable as it is Smith’s first time using the first person in her fiction. While this is a book very much worth reading, I would recommend On Beauty as a starting point for any prospective readers of her work.
