About this title: An Englishman, Archie Jones, and a Bengali Muslim named Samad Iqbal, who first met after World War II in Turkey, encounter each other again 30 years later in the North-West London neighborhood where they live with their families. The daughter of Archie and his Jamaican wife falls in love with Samad's radical fundamentalist son. Archie's sister-in ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780375703867ISBN:0375703861
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780375703867ISBN:0375703861
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780375703867ISBN:0375703861
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. Return Policy Any defects, damages, or material differences with your item, must be reported to us within 7 days of receipt of the item or 30 days from date of shipment. The returned merchandise must be ... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780140276336ISBN:0140276335
Description: Good. 275-W-Add Good Condition: A copy that has been read, but remains in good condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dust cover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or be an ex-library item. Some pages or dust-jacket may have tiny tears. Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous ... read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"A lot of people seem to start reading this book wanting to like it, but then find they don't. I didn't start off with any intentions but I did like it when I started reading. However as with those people I found I couldn't like it in the end. It starts off being quite a funny description of stereotypical lives of people from different cultures thrown together in London. Then it seems to lose its way in little sub-stories which one assumes are meant to give some kind of depth to the characters but none of the characters are likeable nor do they have any positive attributes. I don't have anything against books without positive characters, but you do end up thinking everyone would have been a lot better off if they had all stayed in their own countries. The author does have some good points about how silly people can be, but increasingly toward the end of the book each chapter seems to end in some incomprehensible rant about who knows what. I'd have given one star more for each 100 pages of nonsense cut out."
"I hated this book, and so did my Writers Reading Fiction classmates and professor. We couldn't even get through the whole thing due to boredom. I hear that many praise Zadie Smith for her first novel, but I am not one of those fans!"
"Since this debut work, Zadie Smith has become a British darling of the literary scene. Frankly, I don't know why. This is a post-war attempt of the intersecting-storylines-concept of "Crash," with the nonsensical scientific jargon of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Granted, there are two notably funny scenes, where someone dies after slipping on hair rollers at the salon, and banging their head on the shampoo bowl. There's also the humorous Dad of the twins, who protests most everything the boys' school coordinates for secular holidays. He vents his frustrations at trying to maintain a proper Muslim household as his sons wear black armbands to mourn the cancellation of the school's annual Halloween parade--a bizarre tradition to celebrate souless "wood sprites" as the Dad argues--the school officials cancelled the parade to pacify him.
I still don't understand the bizarre FutureMouse project. However, in the book, it has all the media hysteria and hoopla of Armstrong's landing on the moon. Or the birth of Suri Cruise."
"It is an ambitious book spanning generations and a variety of immigrant cultures that populate London. We found the book to be laugh out loud funny at points and thought the writing was very clever. The close friendship of Archie and Samad, which started in World War II, when they were both fighting for the Allies, was heart of the story. Archie was a typical British working class man and Samad was a Muslim Bengali from Pakistan. Archie married a daughter of a Jehovah's Witness from Jamaica and Samad had an arranged marriage. These characters and their children created a canvas for Zadie Smith to paint a very complex but light hearted picture of modern day London. The story brought together groups from Muslim extremists, animal rights activists, and British intellectuals, whom are destined to meet up in the end of the book over their reaction to animal cloning. There are many good insights into how people connect to various causes, however misguided, finding meaning to their lives within those parameters."
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