While I agree that this is not Smith’s best non-fiction, Intimations nevertheless manages to convey thoughts and feelings that a huge number of people have experienced over the past months. The virus and its dramatic consequences on people’s lives are the fil rouge which allows readers to move from one introspective moment to the next. Others are isolation, suffering, self-consciousness, connectedness – all concepts which contribute to a fragmented picture of a New York under lockdown in the spring of 2020. But for this same reason, she was able to spot all the specific features and contradictions that historically define(d) the country’s identity.Ĭollectivity is one of the key words which best summarises the spirit of Smith’s essays. Smith’s perspective is that of a Jamaican-British woman of letters living between London and the Big Apple, who observes Trump’s America from a consciously privileged position.

Smith’s readers are certainly used to a more refined style of prose, but Intimations does deserve recognition for its frankness and helplessness, as Smith conveys her reactions to the unimaginable, collective pain that Coronavirus is still afflicting worldwide. Indeed, the essays in question, too, seem to flow uninterrupted from Smith’s mind to the page, without much of a critical parachute to cushion their fall. By Elisa Pesce featured image CC by Internazįorgive me if this blog is not the smooth reading experience you might have expected or wished for, but I believe it important to keep my comments on Zadie Smith’s Intimations as faithful as possible to the atmosphere which inspired the book.

Intimations smith