The Fraud by Zadie Smith

[Anonymous]

Has anyone actually read and liked this book? I just finished it and I don’t know why I bothered. I even looked up the literary reviews to see why it was acclaimed and I still don’t get it… (I adored On Beauty and thought her other books were all quite good).

[Anonymous]

How disappointing! My hold just came up this weekend (after waiting 5 months).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How disappointing! My hold just came up this weekend (after waiting 5 months).

You may like it? I waited a long time for it on Libby. It just really didn’t work for me.

[Anonymous]

I love her books and this is the first one that didn't work for me.

[Anonymous]

I only read a few chapters, then wasn't interested.

[Anonymous]

I think she's an interesting literary personality but her writing doesn't interest me in the slightest. I've tried White Teeth and the others and they're basic, populist stuff. She steals the plots of existing novels (granted she admits this) and doesn't do anything new except look pretty in interviews.

[Anonymous]

I tried and failed to read White Teeth and gave up after that. Was vaguely interested in The Fraud but now not so sure.

[Anonymous]

I hated, hated, hated it. It made me mad at myself for falling for all the "best of 2023" lists. Such a waste of my time.

And White Teeth is one of my favorite books.

[Anonymous]

I liked it, but admittedly I got bored and didn't finish it. (It probably had to go back to the library) I thought it was well written but I can see how it annoyed people. There's a lot of dithering about, which is par for the course in great British 19th century novels.

I am hoping to finish it at some point.

I loved NW and White Teeth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hated, hated, hated it. It made me mad at myself for falling for all the "best of 2023" lists. Such a waste of my time.

And White Teeth is one of my favorite books.

Same.