In her wide-ranging new collection, Zadie Smith’s sharp eye darts from social media to Ella Fitzgerald, from the English seasons to Prince’s dancing. For Smith, anything is a potential text that she can subject to her talent for keen observation.

These essays occasionally leave one wishing she’d consider embodying a specific opinion or identity, as much of her work appears to be ambiguous. Individually, her essays have a truncated effect, but read in succession, they start to take a form that makes more sense. They become something like a novel, with Zadie Smith as its most compelling character.

The standout sections of this collection were certainly the political ones, which were superlative. As these essays were stacked straight to the beginning, the overall impression was that the text was front-loaded, thereby fundamentally setting up the reader to experience a decline - however slight.

To be fair, even Zadie’s worst essay in this collection did not begin to approach most writers’ best; even the ones I had the least interest in were nevertheless certainly worthy of my time and consideration. But what I would give for her to direct her considerable talents to dissecting not just popular culture, but to an entire book dedicated to the immense and inconceivable political climes in which we find ourselves.

With thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

A true talent of our generation, Zadie Smith never fails to write beautifully and move with her words. A brilliant collection of essays that touch you and stir passions.

Excellent non-fiction from the ever reliable Zadie Smith. Primarily known for her fiction, Smith’s collection of essays on everything from Facebook to Brexit has proved her place at the top of her profession. Truly the voice of a generation.

I first fell in love with Zadie Smith’s writing when I had to read White Teeth for an English Literature essay at college, and ever since I’ve been hungrily devouring anything and everything she puts her name to. So I was really excited when I saw that she’d published a new collection of essays this month, titled Feel Free.
The subject matter of the essays is varied, from politics to critique of art and films, but each was written with that incredibly style that Zadie Smith has. My favourites were Fences: A Brexit Diary, and North West London Blues, an essay about the closure of her local library in Willesden. Both managed to evoke such emotion and feeling, while still adding valuable commentary about our current social and political climate.

“I’m reading Zadie Smith’s latest essay collection and she makes me never want to write again because why bother when you aren’t Zadie Smith!” My Zadie Smith experience summed up in one sentence.

Seriously though, Feel Free is glorious collection of essays ranging from the personal to the political; covering art, literature, philosophy and music. Smith’s words are a joy to read even when unfamiliar with the text/art she is discussing.

Stand out essay – Some Note on Attunement

I really wanted to like this one, because it was kind of billed as a new 'Bad Feminist' with a series of insightful, short essays. Maybe it was just the formatting that I didn't like, but I really couldn't get into it. There was just nothing pulling me in or gripping me. It seemed to be less of an exploration of pop culture but a memoir talking about Zadie Smith's life. Maybe it's a personal thing about her writing, I'm not sure.

I feel that with a book of essays, there are always going to be some that resonate more with a reader than others. Zadie Smith is an astonishing writer, no matter what she's writing about, and I found the essays about life-writing, identity in fiction, and writers and dancers to be particularly interesting. Also the essay about J. G. Ballard's 'Crash'. Some of the other essays didn't really do it for me, but I'm sure everyone will have their favourites.

This is a startlingly intellectual and biographical work that gives extraordinary insight into the life and work of one of Britain's brightest novelist. I enjoyed reading the stories very much and they resonate on so many levels, because they cover topics that occupy families and dinner conversation all over the country, if not Europe. From Brexit to multicultural upbringing in London, you will be hard pressed to find another writer who can put her feelings into thoughts into writing with such eloquence and skill. This will be a well-loved and well-thuumbed volume for some time to come.

In her second book of essays, reviews, articles etc, Feel Free, Zadie Smith offers a beguiling guide to an impressively wide range of subjects, from Jay-Z, her father and films such as Get Out and Anomalisa to Rome, art and parenthood. She can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned - read it.

Feel Free’ is a new collection of over thirty essays, reviews and interviews by Zadie Smith divided into five sections. The first and last of these, ‘In the World’ and ‘Feel Free’, cover current events and some autobiographical “life writing”, while ‘In the Audience’, ‘In the Gallery’ and ‘On the Bookshelf’ concern her musings on film, art and writing respectively.

Covering a vast array of topics, the collection opens with an impassioned defence of libraries (“the only thing left on the high street that doesn’t want either your soul or your wallet”) while a new security fence constructed around her daughter’s primary school is the springboard for a nuanced and insightful piece on Brexit. As to be expected, some of the more in-depth reviews may only be of real interest for those who already know about the subject matter. I am familiar with some of the films and authors discussed here (‘The Social Network’, ‘Get Out’ and Karl Ove Knausgaard are all featured), but it has to be said that the more academic essays about art were less appealing to me and I skimmed most of these. As well as subject matter, the essays were originally written for very different audiences across different publications and while many pieces first appeared in the New York Review of Books and Harper’s magazine, some were delivered as lectures.

As she does so skilfully in her fiction, Smith moves easily between up-to-the-minute contemporary pop culture and obscure or highbrow intellectual figures – from an exploration of Schopenhauer references in the film ‘Anomalisa’ to the surprising links between Jewish philosopher Martin Buber and pop star Justin Bieber (yes, really). Above all, however, Smith is at her most engaging when talking about her own writing and family background. In the lecture ‘The I Who Is Not Me’, she explores why it took until her fifth novel Swing Time for her to start writing fiction in the first person while ‘The Bathroom’, a new autobiographical piece published last year, is among the most impressive in the “life writing” section.

I am rarely drawn to collections of essays, even those by well-respected authors whose novels I have enjoyed, as it strikes me as a form which often serves the writer much more than the audience. Fortunately, Smith shows that essays need not be dry and inaccessible - instead, they can be illuminating and erudite. I haven’t yet read Smith’s first collection of essays ‘Changing My Mind’ published in 2009 but will consider doing so while waiting for her next novel to be published. Many thanks to Penguin Books UK for sending me a review copy of ‘Feel Free’ via NetGalley.

It's hard to review a collection of essays - there's not much you can really say without sharing the essays themselves. I'll do my best to capture what I think about the collection as a whole, rather than referring to specific pieces, as this is spoiler-free and pre-release.


Firstly, Zadie Smith's writing is very good, she writes beautifully, captivating the readers' attention and making you want to read this whole book in one sitting. However, I think that this is a collection of essays, and that you could read them in different ways, for instance, reading one essay per day, over a longer period of time, reading one of five sections of the book or reading the whole book in one day. I read this on and off, and ended up reading around one section per sitting.


I really enjoyed reading this collection of essays, I'm a fan of sets of poems, anthologies and essay collections as I enjoy picking these kinds of books from my bookshelf and reading small excerpts, dipping in and out. My favourites were the essays focused on politics or media, because I found these the most interesting and engaging - probably as these are topics I enjoy reading about, whereas I didn't enjoy the essays which discussed and commented on art etc. Some of these were interesting but the majority felt like a page-filler.


I would recommend this collection of essays for those who like dipping in and out of these kinds of reads, and would recommend reading this in parts. I will look out for Zadie Smith's books in the future!

Full Review: https://thereadingruby.blogspot.com/2018/02/book-review-feel-free-by-zadie-smith.html

Zadie Smith exists on a plane above us mere mortals. Her sheer intelligence and wit shine through these essays leaving the reader in awe. Surely it's unfair that one person has this much talent? Inevitably I enjoyed some essays more than others but each essay was insightful and informative. Some subjects were a little obscure for me and not knowing much about them made full understanding impossible. Others were absolutely riveting and demonstrated Zadie Smith's philosophical curiosity. I would definitely recommend this book.

Feel Free is a book of essays from celebrated author Zadie Smith. Covering a range of topics her strongest point is the more political subjects. Putting a personal spin with her own experience on how certain things have affected gives readers an excellent insight into another view than their own (though I suspect most reading will agree with the author!). All of the essays are beautifully written and well worth reading.

This collection of essays spans a diverse range of topics: current events, music, art, books and movies, to name a few of the observations, covering both ends of the cultural spectrum. As an ex-librarian, I especially appreciated the piece on public libraries (‘the only thing left on the high street that doesn't want either your soul or your wallet’) and also the section on other writers. Her review of the work of Magnus Mills (one of my favourite authors) is particularly enlightening.
Some of the references seem rather dated and obscure for me, but I found the accounts from Smith’s own family history, personal experiences and travels abroad far more relevant - and revealing. And although she describes her fear of personal disclosure (for instance, when using the first person narrative voice in her novels), I would love to read this author's autobiography.

Zadie Smith succeeds in a sophisticated and obviously experienced way in summing up many popular, current and well publicised everyday life issues. And by this I do not just mean Brexit and Donald Trump. She really explores the topics and differing opinions surrounding problems that we live alongside and now seem to ignore. And by doing so she is not only relatable in her explanations and opinions but really challenges your own. This book did not change my life but it has made me look at things in a new light and consider opinions that I would have otherwise tossed to the side. She makes it clear that we are in an ever changing generation and by that we can’t take anything for granted.

She discusses issues such as multiculturalism, family and London life in an honest way in almost all of her essays showing that she is still the same author that she once was. But it is different to the early books that made her name. As I mention before her experience, and now her family put a different life on the topics that she holds close to her heart that shine clearly through her honest approach to the essays.

It is not always an easy read, that is not to say it is not absorbing, but her language is opinions are extremely well formed and articulated which at times can make it hard to understand for those who are lesser so. But this makes it no less interesting and no less readable.

I did really enjoy this read. The dipping in between tales of her past and current situations makes each essay somewhat story like which I really liked. It did make me want to go back and read some of her novels from the past, but I will also now delve more into her collection of non-fiction in the future.

A mixed collection of essays: the best are when Smith is discussing issues of politics (the closure of public libraries, the Brexit vote) where she brings a personal intimacy to national questions.

Less enticing are the 'musing' essays where Smith responds to artworks, books, or plays with ideas such as how different dancers epitomize styles of authorship. These pieces often have an interesting idea at their heart but they feel unstructured, sometimes unfinished, more like entries in a writer's diary than a polished essay. They also feel too long: shortened and sharper would have held my interest more and made the piece more impactful.

So not for me a book to be read cover to cover, but good for something stimulating and thoughtful to dip into while commuting.

A fabulous collection of thought provoking, incisive, intelligent essays, well-written and intelligent. The one on Joni Mitchell is a classic.
I enjoyed them all. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the review copy.