The Autograph Man is the 2nd book written by Zadie Smith, the first being White Teeth. She writes well and often offers a knife edge between reality and fantasy in the life of the title character. For me the shenanigans of drunkenness are not entertaining; but for a young drinking crowd of men, this story might be fun to read.

I really enjoyed White Teeth, so expectations were high for this one. But the Autograph Man is nothing like White Teeth. Sure Zadie Smith's impressive writing style is still there, thank god, but though the plot sounded interesting, I think the book still needed a bit more time to really pull it off. I much preferred the second part to the first but not enough to say that I would read it again or recommend it. It's ok, but there's better out there.

This was my first Zadie Smith experience and I was positively enraptured by her writing. Her characters are Dickensian in their eccentricities, and I see strong resemblances to David Foster Wallace as well. Her writing was melodic, like flowing water. Simply beautiful. This will not be my last Zadie Smith book.

Well, I hear that this isn't Zadie Smith's best work and now I'm saddened because I now have no desire to read anything else she has ever written. It was a struggle to get through this, and frankly I'm not even sure why I gave it three stars. In fact, I'm changing it to two right now. Okay, done.

Both the language and characters are incredibly mundane. INCREDIBLY. I could not sympathize with Alex at all, ever. He was the flattest character ever. In fact, all of the characters were flat. Even Kitty Alexander, the once-famous movie star who he FINALLY meets after years is just this boring old woman. The ending was so muddled and blah and quite frankly, I hate myself a little more for reading this entire novel. I had a bad vibe around page 15 but because I have this obsession with finishing every book I start, I forced myself to finish it.

Did not get on with this. Gave up half way.couldnt care less about the characters. Glad it was a library book!

4.0 out of 5 stars
All Things considered, I Liked the Story
By Sherrie Miranda on April 13, 2018
Format: Paperback
As a reader of Black & Latino authors, I bought Zadie Smith's book in part because she is a black Brit. I thought I would learn something about life as a black, British female in London. The main character is a Chinese Jew and there are several other characters in the story, but the one black Brit is talked about a few times & gets about two minutes in an actual scene. There is even a black American prostitute in the story. She is not realistic at all, but none of the characters are.
That said, once I accepted that the novel was NOT about a character like Zadie, I did finally begin to enjoy the story. Alex Li Tandem and his friends are fascinating and unusual characters. And the story is like nothing I've ever read. I always thought people who collected autographs were rather silly people, but I now see that it is also a business and some collectors will do almost anything to get an autograph, including going halfway around the world, as well as forging a signature if they are desperate or delirious enough.
All things considered, I liked the story, but I do imagine I will like some of her other novels more.
Sherrie Miranda's historically based, coming of age, Adventure novel “Secrets & Lies in El Salvador” will be out en Español soon. It's about an American girl in war-torn El Salvador:
http://tinyurl.com/klxbt4y
Her husband made a video for her novel. He wrote the song too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P11Ch...

Nope. This isn’t it. I don’t even know what this IS.
Obviously it’s an exploration of identity (and racism too.) This book is missing the Zadie Smith heart and soul - her commentary of events, politics, the arts and the wider world. Yep, this had Leonard Cohen and Virginia Woolf but... meh. The story didn’t grab me, the characters didn’t grab me. I sat there questioning my own intelligence and pondering my ignorance because I just did NOT get it. Sorry, Zadie.

Zadie Smith is an author whose books I admire, rather than like. Her way of capturing dialogue is unique. Her plots are deceptively complex and her characters are memorable. Yet I always feel that something is lacking. Once again I felt this with The Autograph Man.

British/Asian Alex Li Tandem collects autographs, deals them and assesses them. he also is a self destructive character who cannot get over the death of his father. Although he does have friends, they are patient with him every time Alex sabotages the friendship. This goes for girlfriends as well. In fact the only consistent thing in his life are autographs. However there is one autograph of his favorite movie star, Kitty Alexander, that he received on a night high on drugs and is unsure whether he has a fake. He does know that she lives in new York and plans to visit her during an autograph convention there. Whether he manages to keep his friendships, pursue his obsessions and maintain a relationships is another story.

The structure of The Autograph Man is interesting. The first part is based on the Kabbalah and each chapter represents a different process Alex goes through, while the second half is loosely based on Zen Buddhism, which Alex experiences to achieve inner peace. Add to some drawings and sketches within the novel and you do have something playful.

Like all of Zadie Smith’s books (I just have NW left to read), the cast of characters are a mixture of races. half Asian Alex, his friend Adam is Afro American living in Britain, Alex’s neighbor is Chinese, his other two friends are Jews, which Alex is as well. No one can create a cultural melting pot like Zadie Smith and I like that.

Despite the fact that I did enjoy reading The Autograph Man, I felt that something was lacking, sometimes the dialogue can get a bit heavy going and the plot development becomes a bit unbelievable which ruins the book. I always feel that there’s a perfect novel inside Zadie Smith but it never seems to emerge, hence why I say I admire her novels.

Just as a note, I tried reading this book in 2002 and couldn’t get past the first ten pages. After 17 years I felt that the time was right to read it and I got through it without any problems. Proof that one should give a book a second chance.
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Jag försöker verkligen detta med ljudböcker men har kommit fram till att det inte är något för mig. Ben Barnes läser denna bok perfekt så det är absolut inte uppläsaren. Det är något med ljudböcker, jag får svårt att koncentrera mig. Podd älskar jag att lyssna till men ljudböcker går verkligen inte, vet inte varför.

Det är den första bok av Zadie Smith jag ”läser”, jag kan inte direkt påstå att jag känner mig pepp på att läsa något mer efter denna. Den är seg och tråkig, otroligt rörig, det känns som att författaren medvetet har gjort det så tilltrasslat som det bara går.

Det är en udda samling karaktärer i ett mångkulturellt London och New York. Tur är att uppläsaren använde olika röster och dialekter så man inte blandade ihop dem för mycket då det var många karaktärer och namn att hålla reda på.

Ouch. I thought this was a mess and I'm a fan. What a good editorial shearing might have done. It has lots of cool Zadie Smith bits - rich cultural references, great friendships, but no novel needs to have four rabbis in it, unless it is a novel ABOUT rabbis. And those Kabbalistic charts. Oh no.

3.5 stars in reality. zadie smith writing beautiful vs most annoying main character ever. reminded me how below the baseline of jewish i am. i love when man’s right is actually to objectify all women and cheating is so fine because he literally just wants to like whats wrong with that. every day i thank god i’m gay

A thoroughly modern fable that seems to be about the over-identification with symbols, from the marks of Kabbalah to the titular autographs. It's brisker and more playful than White Teeth (which was plenty playful) but also lacks its human scope. It also suffers from a frequent Zadie Smith problem I have; she seems decidedly more capable of sympathy for her characters than I am. Note to self: reading about alcoholics is annoying if you want to care about their decisions at all.