On Beauty by Zadie Smith
"On Beauty" is a novel by Zadie Smith that explores the complexities of family dynamics, cultural clashes, and personal identity within a contemporary academic setting. The story centers on the Belsey family, comprised of Howard Belsey, a white English art historian, and his African American wife Kiki, alongside their three children. Their lives intersect with the conservative Kipps family, particularly through the intellectual rivalry between Howard and Monty Kipps, both experts on Rembrandt. As the narrative unfolds, it delves into themes of race, class, and the nuances of relationships, highlighted by the characters' affairs and moral dilemmas.
The novel is structured around a homage to E.M. Forster's "Howards End," echoing themes of friendship and ideological conflict. It features a diverse cast, including students at the fictional Wellington College, who navigate campus politics and personal aspirations. The plot intricately weaves humor with poignant observations about contemporary life, culminating in a powerful commentary on the fragility of human connections. Ultimately, "On Beauty" presents an ambiguous ending, reflecting the characters' struggles and the absence of redemption amidst their crumbling lives. Smith's work is noted for its sharp wit and insightful critique of modern society, making it a significant contribution to the literary landscape.
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On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 2005
Type of work: Novel
The Work
The cast of characters in On Beauty includes the members of the liberal Belsey family, white English Howard married to African American Kiki, and their three children, Jerome, Zora, and Levi; the conservative Anglo-Caribbean Kipps family, Monty, Carlene, and their children; as well as a host of other students and academics at fictional Wellington College. The novel pays homage to E. M. Forster’s Howards End (1910) from its opening line, to the cross-cultural friendship of liberal Kiki Belsey and the dying conservative Christian Carlene Kipps, to the conflict between cultural liberals and conservatives.
As the novel opens, the Belsey’s oldest son, Jerome, while spending a summer in London, has come under the influence of Howard Belsey’s academic and philosophical archrival, Monty Kipps. Jerome has become a believing Christian, to the dismay of his atheist and ultrarational father, and has fallen in love with Monty’s lovely daughter, Victoria. The antagonism between the two men is intellectual and academic; they are both art historians specializing in Rembrandt and have radically different approaches to interpreting the artist’s work.
Howard is an antihero. As the novel opens he is trying to cover up his affair with a female colleague. Later he engages in an affair with Victoria Kipps. He is sometimes amusing, but his morals are too loose to make him a likable character. His approach to art is purely theoretical; he has spent his career deconstructing other people’s ideas of good and beauty to the ultimate detriment of his own soul.
Monty Kipps is not above reproach either; he is having an affair with his graduate assistant while his devoted wife is dying of an unnamed disease. The two rivals’ worlds and families collide when Kipps is invited to give a lecture at Wellington. Kiki becomes friends with Carlene, drawn to her by compassion and a mutual love of family. Howard is irresistibly drawn to sexually liberated Victoria Kipps, now a student at Wellington, while his daughter Zora, under the influence of Howard’s former mistress, poetry teacher Claire Malcolm, champions Monty Kipps’s right to advance his conservative agenda as a free speech issue. Ultimately both men lose their wives, and Howard’s valued intellect deconstructs along with his personal life.
Some of the most compelling scenes in this large and ambitious novel concern race and class. The encounter at an outdoor concert on Boston Common, when Zora picks up Carl’s Discman instead of her own, is reminiscent of the scene in Howards End, when the Schlegel sisters encounter the working man Leonard Bast and take his umbrella home by mistake. Carl, a young black man from the ghetto, is invited to audit a poetry class at Wellington and turns out to be a better poet than most of the students, as well as an objective observer of the sometimes cutthroat campus politics. Levi, the youngest Belsey son, is determined to escape from liberal white Wellington, and in some of the most humorous scenes in the novel he does his best to look and act like a ghetto kid. Class and race boundaries are crossed in both instances.
After a series of rapid plot twists, both families have crumbled. There is no redemption in the ambiguous ending. Carlene Kipps has died, Kiki has left Howard and is involved in a lawsuit with Monty for possession of the valuable painting that Carlene bequeathed to her, and Howard’s career is in decay. In another ambitious novel filled with witty observation and commentary on academia, family life, politics, and pop culture, Zadie Smith has accomplished her goal of creating a twenty-first century novel of manners in homage to her literary mentor, Forster.
Review Sources
Booklist 101, no. 22 (August 1, 2005): 1953.
The Economist 376 (September 10, 2005): 81-82.
Harper’s Magazine 311 (October, 2005): 83-88.
Kirkus Reviews 73, no. 15 (August 1, 2005): 812.
Library Journal 130, no. 13 (August 15, 2005): 73.
The Nation 281, no. 10 (October 3, 2005): 25-28.
The New York Times 154 (September 13, 2005): E1-E8.
The New York Times Book Review 155 (September 18, 2005): 1-11.
The New Yorker, October 3, 2005, pp. 99-101.
Newsweek 146, no. 12 (September 19, 2005): 62.
Publishers Weekly 252, no. 30 (August 1, 2005): 44.
The Times Literary Supplement, September 2, 2005, pp. 10-11.