The Autograph Man
Zadie Smith
Follow up to White Teeth, enjoyed by pretty much everyone in the
group. The story of Alex-Li, who collects autographs for a living
and what happens to him and his immediate circle of friends when
the rarest and most coveted autograph in his area of interest
becomes available to him. There's a lot of other ideas in the
book about Jewishness, goyishness, religion in general, body
language and much more but it came over to Andrew as a lot of
icing without very much cake and although it's quite an easy read
and he kept on turning the pages, occasionally wondering why he
didn't care more about the characters.
Andrew 29/6/03
Gill loved this book but couldn't quite say why, given her usual
aversion to depictions of modern life and as she struggled to
understand a lot of the details of the characters' relationships
with drugs and religion. Gill also loved and agreed with a lot of
the author's observations about modern urban life.
Gill 29/6/03
One of the few in the group who hasn't read White Teeth, Bob
didn't like this book but found it hard to say exactly why. The
characters didn't grab him and he found himself skimming over
large parts of it.
Bob 23/11/03
By the same author
The frames have
gone all funny - click to make it good.