Grand Union

What a delight. Readers here found it irresistible to pick favorites of these stories and fault others, but I savored the variety, the unpredictibiity from one to the next, the formal innovations, stylistic and structural, suggesting an infinitude. Granted not every writer has the agility or interest in searching out forms for their own expressive potential, or has Smith's playfulness or wit. I sometimes think we've fallen into a dead-end conventionality in literature, a conviction that there's nothing left to be explored in the medium itself and its capacities. Zadie Smith is a wonderful reassurance here. Was never tempted to read "White Teeth" but am delighted so far with "On Beauty," hilarious but more conventional stylistically than these. With "Grand Union" she's one-stop-shopping for a revitalized Post-modernism, and I'm reassured for it. Try a sample or two. I hope she gives us more, if the short-story form invites this kind of invention. Only Lydia Davis had such versatility, that I can think of offhand, anyway. Brava!

These short stories can seem but chips from the block, yet most of them memorably good even so. Not much that Smith can’t turn her hand to in fiction! Fun to read her experiments in voice and form.

Romane von Smith lese ich gerne, aber diese Kurzgeschichtensammlung war für mich zu gemischt/ unterschiedlich: Es waren einige wenige darunter, die mich bewegt haben, aber viele andere fand ich schnell zusammengeschustert, oder vom sujet her uninteressant, oder zu intellektuell überhöht.Sie experiment hier auch mit vielen verschiedenen Stilen, was neues Einfühlen bei jeder story erfordert; das hat mich ungeduldig werden lassen: Es gibt hier keinen eindeutigen Zadie Smith Stil, keine Wiedererkennungsmerkmale ( was aber, wie ich finde, ein Merkmal eines guten Kurzgeschichtenautors ist).Das Buch ging in den öffentlichen Bücherschrank…

Perfect

Ok sort stories...not a big fan of Zaide Smith..