Check out this Zadie Smith short story

[mountaingal]

read this story in the New Yorker magazine on the way home yesterday and loved it. It's by Zadie Smith, the black British author who wrote White Teeth. She's amazing.

Hanwell Senior

[mountaingal]

Re: Check out this Zadie Smith short story

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This is reminiscent of all the dutiful grandchildren and great-grandchildren lingering over deathbeds with digital recorders, or else manically pursuing their ancestors through the online genealogy sites at three in the morning, so very eager to reconstitute the lives and thoughts of dead and soon-to-be-dead men, though they may regularly screen the phone calls of their own mothers. I am of that generation. I will do anything for my family except see them.</div></div>

oy.

[mountaingal]

Re: Check out this Zadie Smith short story

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">He said his father had died, a sentence that required us—my mother, my brother, and me—to invent a whole human in one second and kill him off the next. </div></div>

a marvellous turn of phrase. the man who died had been unknown to the family.

[seemiyah]

Re: Check out this Zadie Smith short story

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mountaingal</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">He said his father had died, a sentence that required us—my mother, my brother, and me—to invent a whole human in one second and kill him off the next. </div></div>

a marvellous turn of phrase. the man who died had been unknown to the family.
</div></div>

When I clicked the link I hadn't read this comment so when I got to that part in the story, I thought it was the best thing I had read in the whole thing. I found it difficult to get into in the beginning, I kept having to re-read it to understand what she was talking bout. It got better.

[Nunya]

Re: Check out this Zadie Smith short story

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mountaingal</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">He said his father had died, a sentence that required us—my mother, my brother, and me—to invent a whole human in one second and kill him off the next. </div></div>

a marvellous turn of phrase. the man who died had been unknown to the family.
</div></div>

So all that 'background' info on Hanwell Snr, she found out from Hanwell Jnr, after Snr's death?

[mountaingal]

Re: Check out this Zadie Smith short story

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: seemiyah</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mountaingal</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">He said his father had died, a sentence that required us—my mother, my brother, and me—to invent a whole human in one second and kill him off the next. </div></div>

a marvellous turn of phrase. the man who died had been unknown to the family.
</div></div>

When I clicked the link I hadn't read this comment so when I got to that part in the story, I thought it was the best thing I had read in the whole thing. I found it difficult to get into in the beginning, I kept having to re-read it to understand what she was talking bout. It got better. </div></div>

i agree. i actually stopped and savoured that line before continuing. i'm a warmish (not hot) Zadie Smith fan - i liked parts of White Teeth, and couldn't finish her next book about the Jewish Chinese autograph collector, but i think she may be stronger on the short stories.

[mountaingal]

Re: Check out this Zadie Smith short story

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Nunya</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mountaingal</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">He said his father had died, a sentence that required us—my mother, my brother, and me—to invent a whole human in one second and kill him off the next. </div></div>

a marvellous turn of phrase. the man who died had been unknown to the family.
</div></div>

So all that 'background' info on Hanwell Snr, she found out from Hanwell Jnr, after Snr's death? </div></div>

now that you mention it, i think so. the story is a long illustration of "slow reveal" literary device. when the first person "narrator" got introduced in the story, i didn't know she was connected to Hanwell till the story almost done.