When introduced to Barbara, readers quickly learn that she is endearingly oblivious to both her dog’s bad behaviour, “The funny thing about Barbara is she has a little dog whom she insists is a well-behaved dog but who, in reality, either barks or tries to bite pretty much everyone who comes near – except Barbara”, and her own unusual and somewhat socially awkward attempts at interacting with Zadie, “Sometimes, if I’d published a piece in a magazine that day, or a book of mine had just come out, she’d start shouting at me from six feet away, repeating some small, unlikely detail of whatever it was that had struck her, but without any further commentary, complimentary or otherwise”. Zadie’s ability to annotate the behaviour of those who live in her neighbourhood, strikes both humorous and relatable cords, especially when referencing social distancing rules, which now stand to represent this very particular moment in time, forever.

Every chapter is a crucial and coalescent puzzle piece with reference to suffering, but also of indifference, of class, of race, and of privilege.

In each essay, Zadie picks apart her own thought processes about human beings, and of humans, being. The collection is a volume of intimate deliberations that descend deep into hidden pockets of people’s lives. Zadie smith’s latest book Intimations, a collection of six short essays, is both petite and understated aesthetically, whilst unabating in sincerity and commitment to observation and dialogue throughout. Perhaps this concept is not too dissimilar to Zadie’s description in the foreword of her latest essay collection, in which she details that for the first time in her life, she picked up a book, “not as an academic exercise, nor in pursuit of pleasure, but with the same attitude I bring to the instructions for a flat pack-table- I was in need of practical assistance”. In fact, sometimes just as we’re ready to close the door on a certain chapter of inner turmoil we’ve endured, we realise that this piece of art, essay, or film, may be the culmination that is gently nudging us towards the exit sign, armed with a little more digestible clarity than we would’ve had beforehand. Not every piece of art relating to an unpleasant event consumes us in a way we want to resist.

Intimations zadie smith review