Swing Time
Zadie Smith
[Penguin]
The opening act of Swing Time sets the scene: Smith skillfully details the developing childhood friendship between the unnamed narrator and Tracey, two mixed-race girls brought together by a love of dance that transcends the boundaries of time, place, culture and race. This narrative continues in the background as the novel’s focus shifts to adulthood and to the narrator’s working relationship with global pop-superstar Aimee, and their attempts to establish a school for girls in a village in Gambia.
The opening chapters are strong and engaging, but the story begins to tail off with the introduction of Aimee and the shift in location. As in many of Smith’s previous novels, the city of London acts as a character in itself. Given its own richly textured backstory, the cityscape evokes a vivid sense of a very specific time and place. While the scenes in the village (and the occasional episodes in New York) are perfectly well-constructed, clever and interesting, they lack the locational depth of the London scenes and suffer in comparison. This narrative unevenness continues as the story jumps back and forth in location and time – the sections that focus on the narrator’s broken relationships with Tracey and with her own mother are far more compelling than the development of her somewhat implausible relationship with Aimee.
Swing Time is frustratingly brilliant, but finally loses focus, incorporating too many disjointed themes that distract from the emotional heart of the story.
Words – James Hayton
