Zadie Smith - Intimations
The book needed to understand your existence and the society around.
By Anna Bustamante“Love is not something to do, but something to be experienced, and something to go through — that must be why it frightens so many of us and why we so often approach it indirectly”
Covid was a time of distress for everyone; not only was health at the top of every headline, but the immense political uproar we experienced intensified over the years. Released in July 2020, Intimations encompasses the shared experiences, lessons, and philosophies that arose within society as humans experienced mandated lockdown. The author, Zadie Smith, is an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer who grapples with and dissects her thoughts and experiences. She became known after the release of her fiction book, White Teeth, in 2000.
Intimations is an accumulation of six essays titled Peonies, The American Exception, Something to Do, Suffering Like Mel Gibson, Screengrabs (consisting of 7 additional accounts), and Intimations. It is a quick read, but I never wanted it to end; page after page, something new guided me into an off-road thought process. This book moved me in ways I didn't know was possible, validating me in Suffering Like Mel Gibson, internally reflecting in Something to Do, and simply crying from the vulnerability in Intimations: Debts and Lessons.
Moving through the six essays, Peonies highlights the feelings of vulnerability and inevitable change and draws connections between the flower and the beauty and delicacy of life that's fleeting. The American Exception encompasses the heightened tensions of political duality and society's cultural balances during the peak of COVID-19. Something to Dohones in on the concept of personal time and how we decide to spend it; the lockdown exposed us and created an expectation that we needed to show a product of our time. Suffering Like Mel Gibson revolves around the feelings of suffering, both shared and personal—the inherent human desire to compare and judge others' hardships with your own. Smith brings a sense of validation in this chapter by incorporating the realization of equal experiences of pain and suffering. Screengrabs (After Berger, Before the Virus) consists of multiple vignettes of interactions she has encountered that depict the raw and natural form of human existence and cultural norms. The title chapter, Intimations, gives lessons and words of wisdom revolving around the creation of intimacy and what it takes to maintain it; she approaches it from the lens of personal and global interactions.
Zadie Smith has a power that forces the reader to argue with themselves and grapple with their presence in the surrounding world. Intimations takes the reader on a journey of self-actualization through the discourse of our personal existence within our society. This book speaks volumes on what it is like to be a human, identifying how the mundaneness of one's life is quite beautiful; how living in distress and confusion as a result of our world is not an isolating experience—especially during COVID-19.
Although this book consists of Smith arguing with herself over life, she still manages to bring outside life and the essence of characters to the "storyline". The incorporation of stories and some of her first-hand accounts of interactions she has experienced allows the book to step out of the conscious thought process, bringing it to life.
After finishing Intimations on the train rides to and from work, I fell into the rabbit hole of wanting to consume everything she had ever written. This is the kind of book you can read a thousand times and still feel moved and discover something new each time.
December 2024
