Book reviews for Writers. ‘The Fraud’ by Zadie Smith

I had listened to a NY Times book review podcast where they spoke highly of Zadie Smith and this book. I know she is one of the ‘in’ writers, so I thought I should read some and see why.
Reading ‘The Fraud’ by Zadie Smith, I think it could be great, but isn’t. It is too academic. I can see tons of research which Smith needs to get into the novel. The novel is creaking under the weight of all the other things Smith has loaded onto it. There is a bit too much telling, and the brief chapters, which I sort of enjoy, are too short. It is hard to immerse into the story when we keep stopping for a new chapter.
It reads quickly, and I like the main character Eliza Touchet.
But I would say I was disappointed. It is an historical novel that is well researched and touches on a lot of important issues, but feels emotionally distant. I never immersed into the story or felt I was experiencing events with the characters. One time, when Mrs. Touchet is taken by the new Mrs. Sarah Ainsworth to the shady part of London, and we feel fear with Eliza, was wonderful, but it showed how much better the book could have been if there was more of that. There was not a lot of character arc or development of characters. Eliza narrates much of the story, but she doesn’t show much agency and is just floating along in life. While that may be true for many people in real life, it makes for a dull novel.
Sarah might have been a better character to highlight. I could see shades of Rebecca Sharp in her, and Becky Sharp is one of my all-time favourite literary characters. Alas, no.
There was a section of mister Bogle’s history in Jamaica, that was totally narrative ‘telling’. Writers are admonished to ‘Show, don’t Tell’. This part of the book is a good example of why. It became boring, and I wanted to skip it.
I am reminded of a writing instructor that said once that some students took exception to feedback to a submission when she said it didn’t feel true or right, to which they replied ‘But it really happened’. Something similar here. Most of this all really happened.

I think the disconnect is what I expect from a novel and what Smith delivers. I want a story that I can immerse into and experience with the characters. I want a story with some sort of plot, some cause and effect. I want to see characters show agency and I prefer when a character changes, grows and gains some enlightenment from what they have experienced. A character arc. And I like to learn something from a novel.

I have two theories I am working on. One is that as writers get famous, editors become afraid to suggest edits.
Another theory I have written on is my thought that a great novel sits on three supports, like a tripod or stool. A Trinity. They are head or intellect, groin, gut or physicality, and heart or emotion. Getting all three in balance is my goal in writing, and what a perfect novel gets right.
‘The Fraud’ was a lot of intellect, and is enjoyable for that. The wit, ideas, language, political issues, history, and the wonderful English vocabulary of dueling scribes is fun to watch.
But I had little physical reaction, except as I noted above with Sarah and Eliza. Even the telling of the fires and horror that happened in Jamaica was told and we saw Bogle react in anger, but nobody else felt it viscerally, neither the other characters nor this reader.
And any emotional connections were barely mentioned and never felt. In this way, the work seems more like journalism than art.

June 13, 2024
ISBN 9780525558965 (ISBN10: 0525558969)
Book reviews for Writers. ‘The Fraud’ by Zadie Smith

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