Smith, Zadie. (b. 1975).

L i f e

- born to a Jamaican mother and an English father as Sadie Smith, later changed her name to Zadie

W o r k

- compared to Salman Rushdie in subject: her first novel is concerned with deconstructing Western mythologies of racial stereotypes

- also compared to Martin Amis in style

White Teeth (2000):

- told through the interrelated stories of three ethnically different London-based families: Indian, Jamaican, and English

- focuses at multiple themes: the influence of history, the search for identity, the ethics of science

- shows an effective use of humour and critical insight

> an immediate success, translated into over twenty languages

The Autograph Man (2002):

- a story of loss, obsession, and the nature of celebrity

- as in the former novel uses humour x but: shifts towards a postmodern irony against oneself

On Beauty (2005):

< heavily draws on E. M. Forster's Howards End (1910)

- contrasts an English white liberal who demands censorship x a conservative English Afro-Caribbean who questions the effectiveness of positive discrimination

- concludes with an affirmation of Forster's epigraph "only connect", with an assertion that connections in human relationships are essential for a happy life

Fail Better: The Morality of the Novel (2006):

- a literary critical collection of essays on 20^th century writers