Why is this novel in the media on different reading lists? For starters, Zadie Smith is vouching for it along with other writers on the back cover. So, there.
I believe Raven Leilani has been a regular student attending Ms Smith’s Creative Writing lectures, the very lucky one then, the very young novelist now.
The jacket says ‘Edie is stumbling through her twenties... and then she meets Eric, a digital
archivist...’ and throughout the book you will see that this is not the only present time. The whole
story is narrated from the first person, in the present simple tense, which might sound a bit unambitious or the easiest road for a writer but clearly a reader today (and by today, this reviewer means today’s standards, sorry-dashing-to-see-Netflix-now, no time at all and all that!), but also you might get really, really super-engaged in what is going on with this young woman, right in the middle of a very unusual affair with an older guy.
It’s not just physicality, there’s racial politics as well. Plus, loads of references to high-brow stuff,
uni contents and millennial imagery. Once she opens twitter and has a ‘ run-in with a young
Republican’ before or maybe after (this reviewer can’t remember exactly) she makes sense of her identity as a black woman, temporarily living the life of white people in a white neighbourhood.
Get a copy, it’s fun and time well-spent.
Reviewed by María José M Ruibal
Teacher of English at EOI
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