So many identities, so little time! Theres a lot of breathless trying on in Zadie Smiths first collection of short stories as if shes late to a fancy dress party but still cant decide what costume to wear. Or whether to go in fancy dress at all. Or maybe go to the cinema instead? There is autofiction here, along with formal experimentation, dystopian sci-fi, surrealism, social satire, parable and a story from the point of view of God that reads like a droll reflection on creative restlessness.
Each of Smiths five novels, from White Teeth (2000) to Swing Time (2016), have danced from one identity to the next, shifting accent, cadence, tone. Meanwhile, her protean essay collections, Changing My Mind (2009) and Feel Free (2018), have revealed a terror of intellectual calcification. Changing her mind is essentially how Smith feels free. But its also a trap. Even for a writer, Smith seems unusually anxious about time: wasting it, running out of it or having it stolen from her. Time is freedom to be curious. But aagh! Curiosity also takes a lot of time. Smith, now 43, suffers from a kind of intellectual Fomo, a rapacious interest in everything, which means just as shes trying to knuckle down and focus, shes giving herself more work.
To me, it was beautiful to move between these parallel projects, never getting bogged down, not feeling defined by one way of doing things, feeling light, feeling free
Doesnt mean it wasnt avoidant behaviour, says the omnipotent creator in Blocked.
Zadie Smith se ha establecido como una de las escritoras más icónicas, respetadas y populares de su generación. En su primera colección de cuentos, combina su poder de observación y su voz inimitable para extraer la experiencia tensa y compleja de la vida en el mundo moderno. Entrelazando once historias completamente nuevas e inéditas con algunas de sus piezas más queridas de The New Yorker y de otros lugares, Smith presenta una colección de ficción vertiginosamente rica y variada. Moviéndose de manera emocionante a través de géneros y perspectivas, desde lo histórico a lo vívidamente actual a lo astuto distópico, Grand Union es una colección agudamente alerta y profética sobre el tiempo y el lugar, la identidad y el renacimiento, los legados persistentes que atormentan nuestro yo presente y el futuro misterioso que corre a nuestro encuentro.
Nada está fuera de los límites, y todo, cuando es capturado por la brillante mirada de Smith, se siente fresco y relevante. Con un ritmo perfecto y completamente original, Grand Union destaca las maravillas que Zadie Smith puede hacer.
