Dead and alive : essays / Zadie Smith.

By:

Smith, Zadie [author.]

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: New York : Penguin Press, 2025Description: xi, 335 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9780593834688
0593834682
9780735251229
0735251223

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Online version: Dead and aliveLOC classification:

PR6069.M59 D43 2025

Contents:

Part I. Eyeballing -- European Family -- The Muse at Her Easel: Celia Paul's Self-Portrait -- Toyin Ojih Odutola's Visions of Power -- The Instrumentalist: On Tár -- Stormzy at Glastonbury: King Michael Wears -- His Crown -- Part II. Considering -- Fascinated to Presume: In Defence of Fiction -- Under the Banner of New York -- Egypt: Laughter in the Dark -- Some Notes on Mediated Time -- Part III. Reconsidering -- Black England -- Black Manhattan -- What Do We Want History to Do to Us? -- On Kara Walker -- A Speech for the Kenyon Review -- The Tufton Pragmatists -- Ruination -- Shibboleth -- The Dream of the Raised Arm -- Trump Gaza Number One -- Part IV. Mourning -- The Opposite of Magical Thinking: On Didion -- Daughters of Toni -- A Writer All the Way Down: On Philip Roth -- Martin Amis: England's Only Living Writer -- What Lodged in Her Mind: Remembering -- Hilary Mantel -- Part V. Confessing -- The Realm of the Unspoken -- Agelessness -- The Fall -- On Writing The Fraud -- Some Questions from El Cultural -- Conscience and Consciousness: A Craft Talk for the People and the Person -- Kilburn, My Love.

Summary: "A profound and unparalleled literary voice, Zadie Smith returns with a resounding collection of essays In this eagerly awaited new collection, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects that have captured her attention in recent years. She takes an exhilaratingly close look at artists Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kara Walker and Celia Paul. She invites us along to the movies, to see and to think about Tár, and to New York to reflect on the spontaneous moments that connect us. She takes us on a walk down Kilburn High Road in her beloved North-West London and welcomes us to mourn with her the passing of writers Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison. She considers changes of government on both sides of the Atlantic - and the meaning of 'the commons' in all our lives"-- Provided by publisher.

List(s) this item appears in: New Adult Nonfiction

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Adult Book	Phillipsburg Free Public Library	Adult Non-Fiction	New Books	824.91 SMI	Available		36748002633370

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Named a Best Book of 2025 by The New Yorker , TIME, Vanity Fair, and Kirkus Reviews * One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2025

"Smart, somber . . . There's pleasure in watching a novelist wired to see all sides at once wrangle with her own dynamic subjectivity."
- The New York Times Book Review

A profound and unparalleled literary voice, Zadie Smith returns with a resounding collection of essays

In this eagerly awaited new collection, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects that have captured her attention in recent years.

She takes an exhilaratingly close look at artists Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kara Walker and Celia Paul. She invites us along to the movies, to see and to think about Tár, and to New York to reflect on the spontaneous moments that connect us. She takes us on a walk down Kilburn High Road in her beloved North-West London and welcomes us to mourn with her the passing of writers Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison. She considers changes of government on both sides of the Atlantic - and the meaning of "the commons" in all our lives.

Throughout this thrilling collection, Zadie Smith shows us once again her unrivalled ability to think through critically and humanely some of the most urgent preoccupations and tendencies of our troubled times.

Includes index.

"A profound and unparalleled literary voice, Zadie Smith returns with a resounding collection of essays In this eagerly awaited new collection, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects that have captured her attention in recent years. She takes an exhilaratingly close look at artists Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kara Walker and Celia Paul. She invites us along to the movies, to see and to think about Tár, and to New York to reflect on the spontaneous moments that connect us. She takes us on a walk down Kilburn High Road in her beloved North-West London and welcomes us to mourn with her the passing of writers Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison. She considers changes of government on both sides of the Atlantic - and the meaning of 'the commons' in all our lives"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

Foreword: On Hospitality (ix)
Part I Eyeballing (1)
European Family (3)
The Muse at Her Easel: Celia Paul's Self-Portrait (11)
Toyin Ojih Odutola's Visions of Power (33)
The Instrumentalist: On Tár (43)
King Michael Wears His Crown (61)
Part II Considering (65)
Fascinated to Presume: In Defence of Fiction (67)
Under the Banner of New York (87)
Egypt: Laughter in the Dark (96)
Some Notes on Mediated Time (104)
Part III Reconsidering (127)
Black England (129)
Black Manhattan (139)
What Do We Want History to Do to Us? On Kara Walker (146)
A Speech for the Kenyon Review (166)
The Tufton Pragmatists (171)
Ruination (176)
Shibboleth (185)
The Dream of the Raised Arm (193)
Trump Gaza Number One (205)
Part IV Mourning (211)
The Opposite of Magical Thinking: On Didion (213)
Daughters of Toni (219)
A Writer All the Way Down: On Philip Roth (223)
Martin Amis: England's Only Living Writer (226)
What Lodged in Her Mind: Remembering Hilary Mantel (230)
Part V Confessing (241)
The Realm of the Unspoken (243)
Agelessness (253)
The Fall (258)
On Writing The Fraud (268)
Some Questions from El Cultural (275)
Conscience and Consciousness: A Craft Talk for the People and the Person (284)
Kilburn, My Love (305)
Acknowledgements (309)
Picture Credits (311)
Permissions (315)
Index (321)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Novelist and critic Smith (Feel Free) brings an incisive eye and keen wit to art, music, fiction, politics, and more in this wide-ranging essay collection. Whether analyzing the misogyny faced by female muses; celebrating the work of a generational novelist, such as Toni Morrison; or pointedly commenting on the political and cultural tumult of the current moment, Smith delivers original insights couched in sly, artful prose. ("We thought our lives would be reasonably paced and tell a story full of meaning. Instead it's just been one thing after another, and there are no neat conclusions, except the certainty of death.") Smith offers moments of small delight--like the time she as a young writer unknowingly bummed a smoke off Joan Didion--and takes aim at groups threatening the planet, like think tanks and lobbyists who deny climate change. Standout essays abound, but "Some Notes on Mediated Time" shines as an era-defining summation of how technology impedes the ability to be present. Readers will be rewarded by this unforgettable collection. (Oct.)

Kirkus Book Review

A take on the world. In a gathering of 30 essays and talks from 2016 to early 2025, Smith reflects on arts and politics, aging and craft. Several pieces were informed by dismaying political events: Receiving a literary award from Kenyon College three days after the 2024 American election, Smith talked about the need to protect vulnerable people; in Austria, in 2018, when that country was turning to the political right, she spoke about multiculturalism, exemplified by the makeup of the British World Cup team. At a rally in London, she spoke about climate change denialism; and in an essay written before the July 4, 2024, British election, she reminded her readers about what the Labour Party should stand for, in light of increasing inequality. Politics and history infuse an essay on Kara Walker's "mode of relating to the ruins of the past" and her forewords to reissues of Gretchen Gerzina'sBlack England and James Weldon Johnson'sBlack Manhattan. Smith offers moving obituaries for writers she admires and has learned from: Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, and Hilary Mantel. The movieTar inspires Smith to think about artistic monsters; artist Celia Paul's memoir of her relationship with Lucien Freud elicits an essay about being, or resisting being, a muse. Smith reflects on her own writing in her foreword to her novelThe Fraud, in an interview with a Spanish journalist, and in a talk on craft for a fiction workshop. She extols her beloved Kilburn, in London, and pays homage to New York, where she observes an unexpected sense of community when diverse New Yorkers jump in--silently and efficiently--to help a young mother whose baby carriage suddenly breaks. In that essay and others, Smith seems cautiously optimistic that "moral intelligence" will prevail in hard times. A thoughtful, deft collection. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.