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On Beauty

A Novel

Author Zadie Smith
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Paperback
$18.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
On sale Aug 29, 2006 | 464 Pages | 978-0-14-303774-3
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  • English > Literature > British Literature – 21st Century
  • English > Literature > British Literature – Fiction
  • About
  • Excerpt
  • Awards
  • Author
Winner of the 2006 Orange Prize for fiction, another bestselling masterwork from the celebrated author of Swing Time and White Teeth

"In this sharp, engaging satire, beauty's only skin-deep, but funny cuts to the bone." —Kirkus Reviews


Having hit bestseller lists from the New York Times to the San Francisco Chronicle, this wise, hilarious novel reminds us why Zadie Smith has rocketed to literary stardom. On Beauty is the story of an interracial family living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose misadventures in the culture wars—on both sides of the Atlantic—serve to skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smith's reputation as a major literary talent.


One may as well begin with Jerome's e-mails to his father:

To: HowardBelsey@fas.Wellington.edu

From: Jeromeabroad@easymail.com

Date: Nov 5th

Subject: (none)

Hey Dad—basically I'm just going to keep on keeping on with these mails—I'm no longer expecting you to reply but I am still hoping you will, if that makes sense.

Well, I'm really enjoying everything. I work in Monty Kipps' own office (did you know that he's actually Lord Monty??), which is in the Green Park area. It's me and a Cornish girl called Emily. She's cool. There's also three more yank interns downstairs (one from Boston!), so I feel pretty much at home. I'm a kind of an intern with the duties of a PA—organizing lunches, filing, talking to people on the phone, that kind of thing. Monty's work is much more than just the academic stuff—he's involved with the Race Commission and he has church charities in Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti etc—he keeps me pretty busy. Because it's such a small set-up, I get to work closely with him—and of course I'm living with the family now, so it's like being completely integrated into something new. Ah, the family. You didn't respond so I'm imagining your reaction (not too hard to imagine...) the truth is it was really just the most convenient option at the time. And they were totally kind to offer—I was being evicted from the 'bedsit' place in Marylebone—and the Kipps aren't under any obligation to me, but they asked and I accepted—gratefully. I've been in their place a week now, and still no mention of any rent, which should tell you something. I know you want me to tell you it's a nightmare but I can't—I love living here. It's a different universe. The house is just wow -- early Victorian, a 'terrace'—unassuming looking outside but massive inside -- but there's still a kind of humility that really appeals to me—almost everything white, and a lot of hand--made things, and quilts and dark wood shelves and cornices—and in the whole place there's only one television, which is in the basement anyway just so Monty can keep abreast of news stuff, and some of the stuff he does on the television—but that's it. I think of it as the negativized image of our house sometimes... It's in this bit of North London 'Kilburn' which sounds bucolic but boy oh boy is not bucolic in the least, except for this street we live on off the 'high road' and it's suddenly like you can't hear a thing and you can just sit in the yard in the shadow of this huge tree—80 feet tall and ivy-ed all up the trunk... reading and feeling like you're in a novel... Autumn's different here—Fall much less intense and trees balder earlier—everything more melancholy somehow.

The family are another thing again—they deserve more space and time than I have right now (I'm writing this on my lunch hour). But in brief: one boy: Michael, nice, sporty. A little dull, I guess. You'd think he was anyway. He's a business guy—exactly what business I haven't been able to figure out. And he's huge! He's got two inches on you, at least. They're all big in that athletic, Caribbean way. He must be 6' 5". There's also a very tall and beautiful daughter, Victoria—who I've seen only in photos (she's inter-railing in Europe), but she's coming back for a while on Friday, I think. Monty's wife, Carlene Kipps -- perfect. She's not from Trinidad, though—It's a small island, St something—but I'm not sure. I didn't properly hear it the first time she mentioned it and now it's like it's too late to ask. She's always trying to fatten me up—she feeds me constantly. The rest of the family talk about sports and God and politics and Carlene floats above it all like a kind of angel -- and she's helping me with prayer. She really knows how to pray—and it's very cool to be able to pray without someone in your family coming into the room and a) passing wind b) shouting c) analyzing the 'phoney metaphysics' of prayer d) singing loudly e) laughing.

So that's Carlene Kipps. Tell Mom that she bakes. Just tell her that and then walk away chuckling...

Now, listen to this next bit carefully: in the morning THE WHOLE KIPPS FAMILY have breakfast together and a conversation TOGETHER and then get into a car TOGETHER (are you taking notes?)—I know, I know—not easy to get your head around. I never met a family who wanted to spend so much time with each other.

I hope you can see from everything I've written that your feud or whatever it is is really a waste of time. It's all on your side anyway—Monty doesn't do feuds. You've never even really met properly—just a lot of public debates and stupid letters. It's such a waste of energy. Most of the cruelty in the world is just misplaced energy. I've got to go—work calls!

Love to Mom and Levi, partial love to Zora,

And remember: I love you dad (and I pray for you, too)

phew! longest mail ever!

Jerome XXOXXXX

Copyright © 2006 by Zadie Smith. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
  • WINNER
    Man Booker Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Man Booker Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Man Booker Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Man Booker Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Orange Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Orange Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Orange Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Orange Prize for Fiction
© Ben Bailey-Smith
Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, and Swing Time, as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia, three collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free, and Intimations, and a short story collection, Grand Union. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Smith was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002, and was listed as one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and again in 2013. White Teeth won multiple literary awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. On Beauty was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and NW was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Zadie Smith is currently a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. View titles by Zadie Smith

About

Winner of the 2006 Orange Prize for fiction, another bestselling masterwork from the celebrated author of Swing Time and White Teeth

"In this sharp, engaging satire, beauty's only skin-deep, but funny cuts to the bone." —Kirkus Reviews


Having hit bestseller lists from the New York Times to the San Francisco Chronicle, this wise, hilarious novel reminds us why Zadie Smith has rocketed to literary stardom. On Beauty is the story of an interracial family living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose misadventures in the culture wars—on both sides of the Atlantic—serve to skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smith's reputation as a major literary talent.


Excerpt

One may as well begin with Jerome's e-mails to his father:

To: HowardBelsey@fas.Wellington.edu

From: Jeromeabroad@easymail.com

Date: Nov 5th

Subject: (none)

Hey Dad—basically I'm just going to keep on keeping on with these mails—I'm no longer expecting you to reply but I am still hoping you will, if that makes sense.

Well, I'm really enjoying everything. I work in Monty Kipps' own office (did you know that he's actually Lord Monty??), which is in the Green Park area. It's me and a Cornish girl called Emily. She's cool. There's also three more yank interns downstairs (one from Boston!), so I feel pretty much at home. I'm a kind of an intern with the duties of a PA—organizing lunches, filing, talking to people on the phone, that kind of thing. Monty's work is much more than just the academic stuff—he's involved with the Race Commission and he has church charities in Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti etc—he keeps me pretty busy. Because it's such a small set-up, I get to work closely with him—and of course I'm living with the family now, so it's like being completely integrated into something new. Ah, the family. You didn't respond so I'm imagining your reaction (not too hard to imagine...) the truth is it was really just the most convenient option at the time. And they were totally kind to offer—I was being evicted from the 'bedsit' place in Marylebone—and the Kipps aren't under any obligation to me, but they asked and I accepted—gratefully. I've been in their place a week now, and still no mention of any rent, which should tell you something. I know you want me to tell you it's a nightmare but I can't—I love living here. It's a different universe. The house is just wow -- early Victorian, a 'terrace'—unassuming looking outside but massive inside -- but there's still a kind of humility that really appeals to me—almost everything white, and a lot of hand--made things, and quilts and dark wood shelves and cornices—and in the whole place there's only one television, which is in the basement anyway just so Monty can keep abreast of news stuff, and some of the stuff he does on the television—but that's it. I think of it as the negativized image of our house sometimes... It's in this bit of North London 'Kilburn' which sounds bucolic but boy oh boy is not bucolic in the least, except for this street we live on off the 'high road' and it's suddenly like you can't hear a thing and you can just sit in the yard in the shadow of this huge tree—80 feet tall and ivy-ed all up the trunk... reading and feeling like you're in a novel... Autumn's different here—Fall much less intense and trees balder earlier—everything more melancholy somehow.

The family are another thing again—they deserve more space and time than I have right now (I'm writing this on my lunch hour). But in brief: one boy: Michael, nice, sporty. A little dull, I guess. You'd think he was anyway. He's a business guy—exactly what business I haven't been able to figure out. And he's huge! He's got two inches on you, at least. They're all big in that athletic, Caribbean way. He must be 6' 5". There's also a very tall and beautiful daughter, Victoria—who I've seen only in photos (she's inter-railing in Europe), but she's coming back for a while on Friday, I think. Monty's wife, Carlene Kipps -- perfect. She's not from Trinidad, though—It's a small island, St something—but I'm not sure. I didn't properly hear it the first time she mentioned it and now it's like it's too late to ask. She's always trying to fatten me up—she feeds me constantly. The rest of the family talk about sports and God and politics and Carlene floats above it all like a kind of angel -- and she's helping me with prayer. She really knows how to pray—and it's very cool to be able to pray without someone in your family coming into the room and a) passing wind b) shouting c) analyzing the 'phoney metaphysics' of prayer d) singing loudly e) laughing.

So that's Carlene Kipps. Tell Mom that she bakes. Just tell her that and then walk away chuckling...

Now, listen to this next bit carefully: in the morning THE WHOLE KIPPS FAMILY have breakfast together and a conversation TOGETHER and then get into a car TOGETHER (are you taking notes?)—I know, I know—not easy to get your head around. I never met a family who wanted to spend so much time with each other.

I hope you can see from everything I've written that your feud or whatever it is is really a waste of time. It's all on your side anyway—Monty doesn't do feuds. You've never even really met properly—just a lot of public debates and stupid letters. It's such a waste of energy. Most of the cruelty in the world is just misplaced energy. I've got to go—work calls!

Love to Mom and Levi, partial love to Zora,

And remember: I love you dad (and I pray for you, too)

phew! longest mail ever!

Jerome XXOXXXX

Copyright © 2006 by Zadie Smith. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Awards

  • WINNER
    Man Booker Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Man Booker Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Man Booker Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Man Booker Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Orange Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Orange Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Orange Prize for Fiction
  • WINNER
    Orange Prize for Fiction

Author

© Ben Bailey-Smith
Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, and Swing Time, as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia, three collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free, and Intimations, and a short story collection, Grand Union. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Smith was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002, and was listed as one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and again in 2013. White Teeth won multiple literary awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. On Beauty was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and NW was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Zadie Smith is currently a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. View titles by Zadie Smith

Additional formats

  • On Beauty
    On Beauty
    A Novel
    Zadie Smith
    978-1-101-21811-2
    $12.99 US
    Ebook
    Penguin Books
    Sep 13, 2005
  • On Beauty
    On Beauty
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-7865-5545-1
    $39.95 US
    Audiobook Download
    Penguin Audio
    Sep 08, 2005
  • On Beauty
    On Beauty
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-7865-6397-5
    $25.00 US
    Audiobook Download
    Penguin Audio
    Sep 08, 2005
  • On Beauty
    On Beauty
    A Novel
    Zadie Smith
    978-1-101-21811-2
    $12.99 US
    Ebook
    Penguin Books
    Sep 13, 2005
  • On Beauty
    On Beauty
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-7865-5545-1
    $39.95 US
    Audiobook Download
    Penguin Audio
    Sep 08, 2005
  • On Beauty
    On Beauty
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-7865-6397-5
    $25.00 US
    Audiobook Download
    Penguin Audio
    Sep 08, 2005

Other Books by this Author

  • The Fraud
    The Fraud
    A Novel
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-525-55896-5
    $29.00 US
    Hardcover
    Penguin Press
    Sep 05, 2023
  • The Wife of Willesden
    The Wife of Willesden
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-593-65373-9
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Feb 14, 2023
  • The Surprise
    The Surprise
    Zadie Smith, Nick Laird, Magenta Fox
    978-0-593-52597-5
    $17.99 US
    Hardcover
    Viking Books for Young Readers
    Jun 28, 2022
  • Grand Union
    Grand Union
    Stories
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-525-55901-6
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Oct 06, 2020
  • Intimations
    Intimations
    Six Essays
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-593-29761-2
    $10.95 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Jul 28, 2020
  • Feel Free
    Feel Free
    Essays
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-14-311025-5
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Feb 05, 2019
  • Swing Time
    Swing Time
    A Novel
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-14-311164-1
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Sep 05, 2017
  • NW
    NW
    A Novel
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-14-312393-4
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Aug 27, 2013
  • Changing My Mind
    Changing My Mind
    Occasional Essays
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-14-311795-7
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Oct 26, 2010
  • The Autograph Man
    The Autograph Man
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-375-70387-4
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 17, 2003
  • White Teeth
    White Teeth
    A Novel
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-375-70386-7
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 12, 2001
  • The Fraud
    The Fraud
    A Novel
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-525-55896-5
    $29.00 US
    Hardcover
    Penguin Press
    Sep 05, 2023
  • The Wife of Willesden
    The Wife of Willesden
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-593-65373-9
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Feb 14, 2023
  • The Surprise
    The Surprise
    Zadie Smith, Nick Laird, Magenta Fox
    978-0-593-52597-5
    $17.99 US
    Hardcover
    Viking Books for Young Readers
    Jun 28, 2022
  • Grand Union
    Grand Union
    Stories
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-525-55901-6
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Oct 06, 2020
  • Intimations
    Intimations
    Six Essays
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-593-29761-2
    $10.95 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Jul 28, 2020
  • Feel Free
    Feel Free
    Essays
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-14-311025-5
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Feb 05, 2019
  • Swing Time
    Swing Time
    A Novel
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-14-311164-1
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Sep 05, 2017
  • NW
    NW
    A Novel
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-14-312393-4
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Aug 27, 2013
  • Changing My Mind
    Changing My Mind
    Occasional Essays
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-14-311795-7
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Oct 26, 2010
  • The Autograph Man
    The Autograph Man
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-375-70387-4
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 17, 2003
  • White Teeth
    White Teeth
    A Novel
    Zadie Smith
    978-0-375-70386-7
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 12, 2001
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