On beauty : a novel

Male lust and female friendship draw two families together - despite the gulf that exists between them - in Zadie Smith’s engaging satire.Professor Howard Belsey has done something stupid. And what is more, it is the stupid ‘something’ that men his age seem programmed by cliché to act out. Exiled in his own home by the anger of his wife and the disapproval of his three kids, Howard is about to see his role in the family further undermined by the arrival in their East Coast college town of his nemesis, British academic Monty Kipps."Her new novel is masterly on almost any level — impressive in its command of every register of English, never tiresome despite its length and astonishingly sympathetic to every sort of human frailty ... centre stage stands the Belsey family, arguing, slamming doors, increasingly beleaguered, confused and heartbroken ... As the novel progresses, Smith smoothly shifts into and out of the minds of the various Belsey's, as they sigh, quip and agonize against the backdrop of Wellington classes, parties, lectures and faculty meetings ... At times she can be a little extravagant in her imagery...but her overall tone suggests a kindly Voltairean tolerance for human weakness... it's evident that Smith is a writer for the long haul, an artist whose books we will look forward to every few years, a real and deeply satisfying novelist. E.M. Forster would be proud." - Michael Dirda, The Washington PostWinner of the 2006 Women's Prize For FictionZadie Smith is a multi-award-winning author, who made a huge impact with her first novel, White Teeth, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. It was followed by The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time, a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia, and a collection of essays, Changing My Mind. On Beauty won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and NW was shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. "Howard Belsey is an Englishman abroad, an academic teaching in Wellington, a college town in New England. Married young, thirty years later he is struggling to revive his love for his African American wife Kiki. Meanwhile, his three teenage children - Jerome, Zora and Levi - are each seeking the passions, ideals and commitments that will guide them through their own lives." "After Howard has a disastrous affair with a colleague, his sensitive older son, Jerome, escapes to England for the holidays. In London he defies everything the Belseys represent when he goes to work for Trinidadian right-wing academic and pundit, Monty Kipps. Taken in by the Kipps family for the summer, Jerome falls for Monty's beautiful, capricious daughter, Victoria." "But this short-lived romance has long-lasting consequences, drawing these very different families into each other's lives. As Kiki develops a friendship with Mrs. Kipps, and Howard and Monty do battle on different sides of the culture war, hot-headed Zora brings a handsome young man from the Boston streets into their midst whom she is determined to draw into the fold of the black middle class - but at what price?"--BOOK JACKET Howard Belsey, a Rembrandt scholar who doesn't like Rembrandt, is an Englishman abroad and a long-suffering Professor at Wellington College in New England. He has been married for thirty years to Kiki, an American woman who no longer resembles the sexy activist she once was. Their three children passionately pursue their own paths, and faced with the oppressive enthusiasms of his children, Howard feels that the first two acts of his life are over and he has no clear plans for the finale. Then Jerome, Howard's oldest son, falls for Victoria, the stunning daughter of the right-wing icon Monty Kipps. Increasingly, the two families find themselves thrown together in a beautiful corner of America, enacting a cultural and personal war against the background of real wars that they barely register .. -- New York Times Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the -- On Beauty - -- Chicago Tribune "Short-listed for (the 2005) Man Booker Prize, On Beauty is a rollicking satire ... a tremendously good read."--San Francisco Chronicle