In the quiet period of the year’s end, I am listening to Zadie Smith, who has been speaking to several podcasts about her new book of essays, Dead and Alive. The podcast medium, whose strengths include intimacy and generosity, has brought a new depth to conversations with writers and it suits Zadie Smith especially well. She has a thoughtful and generous mind and she is often movingly honest, despite her evident discomfort at the promotional game and her commitment to privacy.
I have not read much of her fiction. I loved On Beauty, but struggled with NW. I’ll try her latest novel, The Fraud, soon. But I have read and admired her essays, in Changing My Mind and Feel Free, for the clarity, strength and independence of her thought as well as the quality of her prose. But whether she is talking about the value of realist fiction, the dangers of social media, or matters of class, politics, generations and culture, her insights are original, principled and never dull. She defends a vision of the social contract I share, though I think it has been under attack for longer than her. Above all, perhaps, her humanism is the basis of her curiosity about and care for other people.
Unfortunately, her excellent conversation with Ezra Klein has just been paywalled, but these podcasts will make good quiet company if you need it in the busyness of the season.
A Selfless Art 
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