A soporific sophomore effort that reads sort of like Philip Roth trying really hard to impersonate Kurt Vonnegut and losing track of his fingers on the way.

White Teeth quite impressed me, so I thought I'd buy the rest of her books and read them in order of publication. Reading Zadie in chronological order maybe wasn't the best idea. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of her books and hopefully I can consider this one just a little curio of Zadie fandom.

I was trying to decide between four and five stars which is kind of ridiculous because Smith is an extraordinary writer. She takes the scenes and actions of everyday life and describes them with words I would never think of using but when I read them I think there is no other away to describe what she is talking about. She and her prose are whip smart. I thought I would finish the book in two days, but I got bogged down a bit in the characters. The plot and the message being delivered seemed to get unnecessarily complicated; perhaps it would have helped if Alex was developed a little more deeply. Strange that I never read White Teeth or On Beauty, Smith's two more well-known books. Perhaps now I will.

One of the single most memorable books I've ever read and totally underappreciated. It's so good. It's about a young man totally at a loss in his life and he has to do a lot of stupid things to realize he actually has it all pretty good. She chooses a very funny little adventure and a very special character to help him get his head sorted.

It's hard for me to say why this book is so great. I think Smith just has a lot of talent but is often constrained by others expectations of her talent. I think she knew that everyone expects the sophomore effort to suck, so she planned for it to suck, didn't worry about it and wrote a book so unbelievably effing good that I can't imagine she'll ever manage this sort of achievement again.

And I'm sure pretty much no one agrees with me on this one, but there it is. This book is one of my all time favorites. Definitely. I don't re-read many books, but I've read this twice and I have no doubt I will reading it again.

One of those serendipitous moments for me: looking for another of Zadie Smith's books, NW,, I chanced upon this one. What a find. It did take me a couple of pages to settle in with this story but I was hooked from then on. A novel about a young man, his friends and a few months in their lives shown deftly in the hilarious, droll, sometimes very serious but always brilliant words of Zadie Smith.

Alex-Li Tandem is half Chinese, is Jewish, has a black girlfriend, a best mate who's a Rabbi and another one who is secretly in love with him. He's writing his own book on the differences between Jewish and Goyish and he's an Autograph Man – he buys and sells autographs of famous people. His father died when he was fifteen and now at twenty-seven, it's coming up for his father's shul to be offered on his anniversary; something Alex has always failed to do so far. He has had a lifetime devotion to a famous 1940s movie-star but has never managed to acquire her autograph. Alex has always felt himself to be something of a failure but life is about to deal him some hands he never thought possible.

Loved it, loved it, loved it. The humor is sly and the descriptions have be Smith's own kind of wonderful. It is sassy and philosophical, it's warm-hearted and funny, it's wise and irreverent. I borrowed a copy from the library but I'm about to purchase one for myself. One of the best reads I've had this year. 5★

Sometimes, an overload of random losers being pointlessly pathetic just wears you out.

(Don't get me wrong: Zadie Smith is brilliant, but, boy, this is one half-assed book.)

Z „Łowcą autografów” jest tak, że najpierw dajesz się uwieść książce jej specyficznym klimatem, a dopiero potem zastanawiasz się, o czym tak naprawdę ona jest.

Gdyby ktoś obudził mnie w środku nocy i kazał natychmiast powiedzieć, z czym kojarzy mi się „Łowca…”, w pierwszej chwili rzuciłabym: „Z pojmowaniem świata”. Naprawdę.

Książka składa się przede wszystkim nie z głównej historii, ale z różnych wspomnień i przemyśleń głównego bohatera… To taka kołdra z patchworku – niby łaty układają się w jakiś konkretny wzór, ale każdy z kawałków materiału jest dość wyraźnym, odrębnym elementem. Tutaj elementami naszej patchworkowej opowieści są te momenty, kiedy Alex percypuje świat. Przyswaja i osadza w sobie słowa, zdarzenia, zapachy, gesty… Jest kolekcjonerem życia, nie tylko autografów.

Książka jest zbiorem rewelacyjnych cytatów. O związkach, o starości, o pięknie, o sławie, o kulturze… O życiu. Często między jednym a drugim akapitem autorce udaje się wpleść myśl tak celną i napisaną tak prostym językiem, że ciężko jest wyrzucić ją z głowy.

Co irytuje? „Międzynarodowe Gesty”. Jak to męczy... Naprawdę. Wystarczyłoby te gesty opisać, nie trzeba pisać za każdym razem, jak bardzo są uniwersalne. Do tego – bohaterowie. Niby mamy tutaj różnorodność kulturową, rasową, płciową, ale zachowania i reakcje bohaterów zlewają się tak bardzo, że ciężko mówić o jakichś sporych różnicach charakterologicznych. Postacie są barwne, ciekawe, jakieś… Czasem tworzą jednak jedną wielką bezkształtną masę.

Przyznam otwarcie, że nie czytałam wcześniej „Białych zębów”, a „Łowca…” był moim pierwszym kontaktem z twórczością pani Smith. I nie ukrywam, że jest to „współpraca” na tyle owocna i zaskakująca, że chciałabym ją kontynuować.

Este es uno de los libros más extraños que he leído en mi vida. La historia no me ha interesado mucho en ningún momento (exceptuando el primer capítulo, narrado desde el punto de vista del padre), pero tiene algunas partes que me ha deslumbrado por el estilo de escritura. Pero no he conectado ni con el protagonista, ni con su círculo ni con su historia. Eso sí, creo que será un libro del que guardaré algún recuerdo por lo diferente. Intentaré leer algo más de Zadie Smith.

3.5. Bom, mas a aurora tem melhores.

The Autograph Man
Alex Li Tandem is an obsessed fan of the Hollywood actress Kitty. Alex is an autograph man who wants to meet his idol. But will Kitty recognize her fan? And what happens when there are allegations that his prized possession of Kitty's autograph is a fake?

This is a heavy piece of writing. Alex is a Chinese Jew who divides the world into Jewish and Goyish. He writes heartfelt fan letters to Kitty for thirteen years while being unable to have an effective communication with his girlfriend of ten years which show the contrasting layers of relationships.

This is a book you have to work on, like a study routine. I had to push myself to read a few portions each day. The beginning is dry but the pace picks up midway. The passages on Judaism, Goyishness and Buddhism featuring both the rational and blind aspects are a joy to read. The idea of a story set in an autograph market is fresh. However Zadie could have written a crisper work by cutting down a 100 pages.

I would recommend this if you want to explore some good writing in contemporary literature, else its a big NO.

I hated the main character and didn't understand his choices. I found it really hard to concentrate on what was going on (admittedly I was listening to the book over one drive and in short chunks) and found I didn't care, which can't be good. Towards the latter half of the book, I kept wanting it to speed up and end already! There is one brief section I did like towards the beginning of the novel, narrated from the point of view of the Alex's father. But it's a very short section in comparison to the whole novel.

And now, for the first time, I can wait for Zadie Smith's next novel, having read all her published novels. The lady leaves me speechless. What an enviable collection of work to have at the age of 39! Even not counting her brilliant non-fiction book, Changing My Mind.

Still, Autograph Man is, purely on the merit of plot, is the weakest of her works. What lacks there though is amply compensated by the wit and charm, and a sleepwalking kind of narrative where Alex-Li Tandem, as the title suggest, an Autograph Man, scrapes through his life trying to find himself. That search, not a very purposeful, is so typical of the post-modern existence, that's Ms. Smith has, to use a contemporary phrase, nailed it.

Coming after her critically acclaimed debut novel "White Teeth", this was always going to be difficult book to write. It's a kind of monkey everyone wants off their back. And there are elements of that "rush" here, but what really redeems it, after a somewhat weak middle, is the end, where she opens it up, in every which way, and then resists the need to close it all out, making it a brilliant post-modern ending.

I'll take a star away, because it's a Zadie Smith book, and it has to share ratings with On Beauty, and White Teeth. But it's a delightful read nonetheless.

Zadie Smith certainly has a way with characters and dialogue. Her characters live. (The only character I found a bit underdeveloped was Esther, but this may have been intentional as we only see her through Alex's thoughts and what others say to him for most of the book.)

The plot is inventive and, despite one early section, kept my interest throughout. I will certainly forgive the only one or two quirky areas where I thought some editing might've been good in order to have the exuberant, deliberately busy and 'messy' style of this novel. There's a lot of depth here, a lot to think about, but what most impresses is the way this abundance is whittled down to a quiet, almost casual, beautiful insight near the end.