Zadie Smith’s latest book, Deand and Alive: Essays, is illuminating, engrossing, and thought-provoking. Smith engages in a conversation with the reader — because that is what each essay is, a conversation between author and reader — by sharing her thoughts on art, politics, identity (with an emphasis on racial and gender), the algorithm, socioeconomic status, what it means to be an American versus an immigrant, and the relationship between writer and reader. The unifying theme throughout the entire collection is the author’s viewpoints on the individual and the collective, about who I am versus the Other. Many readers are aware of Ms. Smith’s fiction, but, in my humble opinion, not enough are familiar with her essays. I suspect that I am an atypical fan. The first books I read were Changing My Mind and Feel Free, two previous collections of non-fiction. The majesty of her essays, the radiance of her prose — she conveys so much in a single sentence, handpicking each word — was so intoxicating that I rushed to the nearest library to pick up whatever was available of her fiction. “Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction,” “Shibboleth,” “The Realm of the Unspoken,” and “Conscience and Consciousness: A Craft Talk for the People and the Person” — each of which is included in Deand and Alive: Essays — should be required reading. In “Conscience and Consciousness,” Smith writes, “Art is one of the ways we reveal the peculiarities of consciousness.” In this latest collection, it is the author’s consciousness that is on display. Because of this aspect, I feel I understand her a little better, and I suspect many readers will appreciate this all too rare quality of the book. I learned a great deal while reading, and I found myself re-considering my own notions about a great many topics simply due to having access to the author’s vantage point. This collection requires careful reading and deliberation. Please, savor each individual work.
Deand and Alive: Essays by Zadie Smith, (List Price: $30, Penguin Press, 9780593834688, October 2025)
Reviewed by Michael Yetter, Joseph-Beth Booksellers Lexington in Lexington, Kentucky
“[It’s] often not what you get around stories that involve African Americans. Most of us cannot trace our histories all the way back to a slave ship or to a particular country in Africa because the records of the enslaved were not recorded in detail. So it’s incredible and very powerful that these descendants know the actual stories of their ancestors that came from Africa.
