Intimations
Author: Zadie Smith
Publisher: Penguin Books
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Cover Description
Deeply personal and powerfully moving, a short and timely series of essays on the experience of lock down, by one of the most clear-sighted and essential writers of our time
“There will be many books written about the year 2020: historical, analytic, political and comprehensive accounts. This is not any of those — the year isn’t half-way done. What I’ve tried to do is organize some of the feelings and thoughts that events, so far, have provoked in me, in those scraps of time the year itself has allowed. These are above all personal essays: small by definition, short by necessity.”
Crafted with the sharp intelligence, wit and style that have won Zadie Smith millions of fans, and suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness in response to these unprecedented times, Intimations is a vital work of art, a gesture of connection and an act of love — an essential book in extraordinary times.
TL;DR Review
Intimations can be read in a single sitting, but it is packed with so much. These essays are the simultaneous balm and wake-up call we need right now.
For you if: You are anyone living in the US during this pandemic, but especially if you are a fan of Zadie Smith and/or a writer.
Full Review
“I am not a scientist or a sociologist. I’m a novelist. Who can admit, late in the day, during this strange and overwhelming season of death that collides, outside my window, with the emergence of dandelions, that spring sometimes rises in me, too, and the moon may occasionally tug at my moods, and if I hear a strange baby cry some part of me still leaps to attention — to submission.”
We knew the pandemic literature was coming. What we didn’t dare even imagine was that Zadie Smith would be the first to enter the field. Intimations sets a high bar for others, which is honestly good for all of us since there will surely be a flood.
Also worth noting, if you haven’t heard: All of Smith’s royalties from this book will be donated to charity. It’s also teeny and paperback — more like a pocket reader than a traditional book — and sells for just $10.95, making it perfect for guilt-free marginalia.
There are only a few essays in the collection, and you could read it in a single sitting. I forced myself not to do that, instead trying to draw it out as long as possible by reading one a day over the course of a week. I wanted to savor them, to not allow one to eclipse another in my mind. I’m glad I read it this way, and I recommend it.
Smith is, as always, a word artist. She takes things we know to be true in our soul (plus a few things that we don’t) and remixes them into language that we can highlight and quote and point to as profound. That is the art of the essay, and I’m sure I don’t need to convince you that she has mastered it. The jacket description says the collection is “crafted with sharp intelligence, wit and style” and “suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness,” and I can tell you that those descriptions ring true.
Smith touches on grief, disbelief, womanhood, racism, guilt, joy, hope, despair, writing, purpose, and more. As you may have heard from others, the essay added as a postscript, “Contempt as a Virus,” is especially excellent. Who else could take racism and combine it with the idea of this fast-spreading, terrifying virus quite like Zadie Smith? It is essay writing at its best.