Hi friends, happy Monday! Today I’m going to be posting my review of Zadie Smith’s novel Swing Time.

Swing Time by: Zadie Smith: Two girls, both with ambitions to dance; one has the talent, the other has more ideas about dance than actual theory. When their friendship ends abruptly, it isn’t forgotten. Over the years the two come into contact as one becomes a dancer, while the other travels the world as an assistant to a famous singer. This was a novel that packed a lot into its contents but left the reader disappointed. The beginning started off alright, something happened to the main character and, what it seemed like from the beginning, the reader would be taken back and the story would be told in a flashback sort way, but that wasn’t really the case. The novel bounced around timelines, one chapter the main character would be a kid, the next she’d be an adult and it was so jarring because there didn’t feel like there was relevance as to why it needed to be told this way. It just confused the reader. There were also these great themes, such as feminism, racism and socioecological structures, that were portrayed throughout that it felt Smith didn’t fully flush out that also left the reader slightly confused. The reader wanted to like this, but it felt too hard and daunting to like. The writing felt very dense, but the characters were intriguing and saved the story because the reader found them to be well crafted and interesting, whereas the plots lacked any intrigue. Overall, this was a long novel that let down the reader.