Although maybe somewhat too generous, I think the book's description from the publisher puts it aptly. The Autograph Man is a "deeply funny existential tour around the hollow trappings of modernity: celebrity, cinema, and the ugly triumph of symbol over experience." This sort of novel isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. It revels in the nullity of mediate and self-aware modern life. It cartoonishly chases sincerity while acknowledging its improbability.

This sort of knife-edge act of deferring to and defeating Influence (RE: the anxiety of influence) ironically defaults to authorial style and wit. I think Zadie Smith passes this test well enough despite the underwhelming nature of her lead's character and doings. Alex-Li Tandem is "a dreary blank, an empty centre" like the critic James Wood complained in his 2002 review, but I don't quite take it as the disappointed he does. Tandem serve as Smith's vehicle for lots of hilarity and dread. This is what The Autograph Man modestly promises and delivers to readers.

n  n

After finishing this novel, I was somewhat surprised by the number of negative reviews of the vaunted Smith. I enjoyed White Teeth similarly to this work, though the former enjoyed a bit more verve. James Wood's review stands out to me because it manage to deliver a negative review while identifying some very interesting things about the work. He labels Smith's second novel a disturbing mutant because she, a contemporary British author, has mind-melded with distinctly American know-it-all writer. Wood laments that "the novel... bears the impress of American writers like Dave Eggers and David Foster Wallace, clever, nervy exhibitionists, IQs-with-i-Books, guys who, as Smith has put it, ‘know things’, writers with a gift for speedy cultural analysis, whose prose is choppy with interruption." This is a style I love so what does it matter that Smith is British? I understand rolling one's eyes at that endless recycling or iteration of snappy pop culture references in ways common to postmodern American artists (e.g. Tarantino). But I think Wood is a bit ahead of the curve with this insight given this was only 2002.

And yes, Wood is right about some of the moral confusion in The Autograph Man, but I don't find this concerning. The amorality and unrelenting cynicism compel a close look at the obsession with spectacle. Although Tandem's profession is a bit quaint (collecting and selling autographs) to today's readers, in some ways the democratization of celebrity in a fragmented cultural landscape have made the theme of the mediate self without sincere grounding more resonant. Like Wood says, "in a world of signs nothing is authentic." Where can we turn to for real meaning except to our cultural artifacts that are built on top of prior cultural artifacts that are often subjects of derision or parody? Where is raw real-life meaning and feeling?

But look at this, this purportedly insubstantial and second-rate Zadie Smith novel has prompted introspection. I think this is what we can hope for from contemporary literary fiction. That and some entertaining frivolity, which this one delivered. Some real bangers!

James Wood Review "Fundamentally Goyish"

Extended review with thoughts on hysterical realism at Holodoxa, my Substack

***Fine, if you don't want to read this I understand. Just get the book and read "The Joke about the Pope and the Chief Rabbi" section and enjoy a good laugh.

Zadie smith is so good at writing dialogue and creating relatable characters with relatable relationships and the friendships in this book made me :,). That being said WOW was this book effing boring. Was so obsessed in the beginning and then I felt like I was just flipping pages waiting for it to be over already.

Perhaps the least "together" of Zadie Smith's books, but still quite entertaining. Manifests an obsession with Jewishness throughout which seems to alienate some readers. Another frequent comment is that the protagonist seems to be liked far more by his author than by his readers. For all that, worth the time, as Smith as, for me, proven to be in all cases to date.

One of the problems with this book, is that it will inevitably be read with 'White Teeth' in mind, and unfortunately, it really doesn't compare. While it demonstrates Smith's tongue-in-cheek humour, it is incredibly slow to start, and the characters are such superficial creations, that it is often difficult to empathise with them. I agree with another reviewer who suggests that Smith seems to have packed too many ideas in here. This results in a novel which is not as satisfyingly complete as her debut, or indeed, the follow up 'On Beauty.'
'Autograph Man' raises some interesting discussions relating to contemporary consumerism and materialism, but lacks the substance and insight perhaps expected of its author.

Truthfully, I'm really not sure how to review this book. Smith writes as if she were trying to be your cool pal from high school -- the one with all the latest dirt and the the right attitude. I found it off at first, but I have come around to it a little. But there are still questions, like: Why does she concentrate so exclusively on her male characters? Does the incessant smoking of joints and drinking too much ring false at times because it is something she knows too well or not enough? Plenty of things are revealed in the course of this novel that just lay there, like uncollected firewood.

The writing pulls you in -- great characters, beautiful, sleek observations evocative of experiences and resonating with the modern world. But the plot is like an angry baby that doesn't want to be held anymore, contorting itself to escape, even to the point of endangering itself -- I find the experience analogous to watching TV shows like The Office, where part of the pleasure is in witnessing the acute discomfort of others. I hate that, and end up as uncomfortable as the characters, looking away (a book will not keep reading itself while you are not watching). I am not disposed to like a book whose main character keeps making stupid decisions based on bad impulses.

And yet I'm not sure what it is that I want to be different here. Smiths gestures are contradictory, towards unique cadence and traditional structure -- one moment you are reminded of EM Forster, the next of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and both influences have their good and bad moments. The worst of it is the plot does not even seem very well managed, like it was making itself as it went along, rather than moving along a pre-determined track. Why else introduce a character like Honey and then just let her slide away, like a good view from a train window?

Will there be an epiphany?

No, there will be no epiphany. Which, it turns out, is sort of the point:

"Adam relinquished the argument with a parting of his hands, but as ever, nothing changed in that quiet, definite, iridescent shell that covers the religious, that home they carry with them, everywhere."

I like reading Zadie Smith. She has that ability to reduce insights about the world into choice little bits of words that great writers have. It is a gift, however, that is lost on this novel, which never builds to a climax and so ends up feeling sort of flat.

The Book Is Always Better Than the Film<

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.

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.

Bitti. Yıllar önce izlediğim bir film, içinde geçen bir cümlesiyle aklıma düştü: ‘Bir kitabı ondan bir şey okuyana kadar asla kapatmamalısın.’
Ben de öyle yaptım ama ‘ne okuduğum?’ konusunda bir SS tandemi yapmamız lazım:) Bakalım hayat bize neler gösterecek:)
....
6 Ocak 2020,
Alex Li Tandem'in yani imza toplayan adamın öyküsü bir güreş karşılaşması ile başlar. Bu bir nevi okur için de okuyacaklarının zorlu bir güreş olacağının habercisidir. Güreş izlemeyi seven benim için bile de kitap aynen öyle oldu. Kitap boyunca Alex'in en çok sevdiği gürültüyü- birinci tekil zamiri- çıkaracağını görüp onu bir okur olarak bile yalnız bırakmamam gerektiğini bilip devam ettim. Sabra ihtiyacı vardı ve ' Yaşamdan kavgaları çıkarttığın zaman, geriye sevgi, içinde kabarıp taşan bir sevgi kaldığını hayretle fark etmişti.'
Tandem psikozun sınırlarında yasını öteledikçe, çevirdiğim her sayfa ile neyse ki ' tebessümün yinelenen şafağına ' ulaştık.
Beraberce öğrendik ki; ' bahar gelince otlar kendiliğinden büyür '. Yani ' mavi dağ yerinden kımıldamaz'. Demem şu ki ' beyaz bulutlar bir o yana bir bu yana uçuşur'.
Son sayfayı okuyup kapattığım da ilk hissettiğim şey; ‘arkadaşlık iyidir’ olmuştu. Tandem ile arkadaş olmaktan çekinmeyin, okuyun isterim:)

The book is nothing short of brilliant. While I cannot say with any authority on a drinking Chinese British Jew who is an Autograph Man, Zadie Smith makes you feel she knows one intimately. Creating a character who is effortlessly brilliant (I found him so), is not easy. I have very often in life wondered what the hell some characters in the book are saying. And Alex-Li also wonders that when in conversation, 'I have no idea what you just said or meant' or 'What does that even mean'.

Now to the book brief. Alex Li is an Autograph man, late twenties with an obsession that lasts more than a decade for Kitty Alexander, a 1950s celebrity. Owning her autograph has become a simple point of focus for Alex who otherwise chooses not to focus on anything else. His life, his friends, his relationships and he himself are what the book is all about. Do read the book. It's so much better than White Teeth!

Пофалба до ИЛИ-ИЛИ за добриот превод.

Одамна слушам само пофалби за Зејди Смит па кога ја видов книгава за само 100 денари, решив дека е тоа е тоа и морав да ја купам.

Ова е приказна за Алекс, собирач и препродавач за автограми и иако корицата вика дека неговата цел е да им даде на луѓето дел од славата за која сонуваат, мојот впечаток беше дека всушност токму тој е во потрага по сопствената слава. Чудно опседнат со една глумица, недоволно разјаснети детали, пријатели кои се обидуваат да му помогнат, но притоа создаваат компликации во бизнис.

Идејата како идеја е добра, не сум читала ништо слично досега, но имаше неочекувано многу религиски моменти, за Евреите и кабалата, за смртта. Приказната си има своја тежина и сметам дека други луѓе би ја ценеле многу повеќе од мене. Ќе ја разменам книгава на следната размена на книги и се надевам дека повеќе ќе му се допадне на следниот читател.

Верувам дека повторно ќе ја читам Смит во иднина, има дела кои навистина звучат интересно, но по одредено време :)

A loyal Zadie Smith fan and avid reader of her books made me skeptical about some of the harsher reactions to this one, yet sadly I have to admit I am equally disappointed and perhaps even offended at the quality of this work when we know she can do so much better. She doesn't seem to have put much thought in to this, and was instead rolling off the attention high from the praise for White Teeth. Smith's work is often unrefined which is something I love so much because you can really hear her voice, wit, and humor. There are still a few laugh out loud moments in Autograph Man, however this one is put together poorly overall. The characters have potential, but are for the most part under-developed. Even the main character Alex is unrelatable and unsympathetic. The best part of the book is the prologue where Alex takes a trip to a wrestling match with his childhood friends and father. The rest of the book ruminates on these characters, using them time and again to serve a purpose in Alex's life, but it is all contrived, gimmicky, superficial and sorry to say... utter crap.

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.