Swing Time by Zadie Smith (on CD)

Swing Time
by Zadie Smith [Compact Disc Smith] 

This was an insightful story of two childhood friends who went separate ways in their early 20’s. They were drawn to each other initially through their mutual interest in dance and noticing they had a similar skin tone because of being biracial, which sometimes excluded them from white classmates & other times excluded them from black classmates in their London schools. While Tracey continued to pursue her natural dance talent, the narrator who is never named found her strength in her ideas. As an adult, the narrator found herself working as a personal assistant to a celebrity who wanted to build a school in W. Africa. As the narrator traveled between London and W. Africa, she found herself examining themes of culture, race, gender, family relationships, friendships, personal autonomy, and music.

I did like the story, but found it difficult to concentrate on while listening in short snippets. I was successful at following along when listening to a disc at a time during interstate travel. The frequent shifts in time and location complicated the reading. It is a wonderful social commentary.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Mixed, by Angela Nissel, or The Color of Water, by James McBride.]

[ publisher’s official Swing Time web site ] | [ Wikipedia page for author Zadie Smith ]

Recommended by Jodi R.
Gere Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!