On Beauty
by Zadie Smith · 2005
Buy on Amazon"Howard Belsey is an Englishman abroad, an academic teaching in Wellington, a college town in New England. Married young, thirty years later he is struggling to revive his love for his African American wife Kiki. Meanwhile, his three teenage children - Jerome, Zora and Levi - are each seeking the passions, ideals and commitments that will guide them through their own lives." "After Howard has a disastrous affair with a colleague, his sensitive older son, Jerome, escapes to England for the holidays. In London he defies everything the Belseys represent when he goes to work for Trinidadian right-wing academic and pundit, Monty Kipps.…
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"I'm always drawn to narratives where the characters are intellectuals or artists in some fashion, books like Zadie Smith's "On Beauty" or Colm Toibin's "The Master.""
By the Book: Steven Johnson · nytimes.com