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Bezig met laden... De Ambassade van Cambodja (2013)door Zadie Smith
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. A novella that can easily be read in one sitting in which Zadie Smith explores the hardships facing immigrants in London, It is likely that Fatou is an illegal immigrant, although this is never clarified and is employed by the Derewal family of husband, wife and three children, as a maid and cleaner. The relaxed nature of an ongoing game of badminton at the embassy is contrasted with Fatou’s struggle through life in Africa, Italy and London. Fatou’s precarious position is shown by the passing reference to the family retaining her passport and paying her no wages, but giving her meals and a room, and then unexpectedly firing her. However, Andrew, an immigrant friend she has met in church, shows kindness by offering to help with accommodation and finding her work. Picks up a theme of NW. (1) The character Fatou is Natalie-like. That is: religion as very present but stifling (having sexual feelings is not polite, decent). (2) Also Smith is searching for an alternative for the authorial voice (I'm no theoretician, but what in old age was the all-knowing narrator and now, I believe, usually is called "voice"), this time it is "we from Willesden". (3) Behind the "we" I find her trying to "depict experience" (quote (by heart) from an interview at the time of NW). At one time the authorial voice is reproved by the neighborhood 'we', as if Smith acknowledges it is still an 'I' impersonating a collective neighborhood feeling, at other times not. Fatou is strong like Natalie was. No time for sentimentality in Willesden, life is too harsh for that. Interesting conversations at the Tunisian restaurant. In earlier decades this would have been a "social realist" novel / novella, about characters from "the working class". That's what I like about the conversation about world politics (Cambodia, Holocaust): it is at the same time one by social climbers, who have to make up their minds without 'cultural capital', without the benefit (or sometimes plague) of a cultured upbringing, and an adolescent/young discussion too. Fatou is at the same time judging the qualities of her male friend Andrew as a possible partner. And, not to forget an important circumstance, they are living at the social bottom. "Depicting experience" too is that, like in NW, we are in the harsh present, a present open to an unknown future (pock, smash). In NW I was wondering about the place of religion in the novel. There is thread of the catholic Maria in the novel and Our Lady of Willesden (or how she is called). Here Fatou is baptized (and you don't have to write about that, so it interests Smith) and evidently hopes something more would happen. Is opgenomen inHeeft als studiegids voor studenten
A rare and brilliant story from Zadie Smith, taking us deep into the life of a young woman, Fatou, domestic servant to the Derawals and escapee from one set of hardships to another. Beginning and ending outside the Embassy of Cambodia, which happens to be located in Willesden, NW London, Zadie Smith's absorbing, moving and wryly observed story suggests how the apparently small things in an ordinary life always raise larger, more extraordinary questions. 'It's scale is superficially small, but its range is lightly immense; in the first couple of pages, the world from Ghana to London to Cambodia enters. It is a fiction of consequences both global and heartrenchingly intimate. This voice is global, plural and local, with a delicate grip on historic consequences...... Works on an awesomely global scale, and the relations of slavery and mastership are traced in both personal and international scale.' Philip Hensher, The Guardian'Reading it is a bit like having a starter in a restaurant that is so good you wish you had ordered a big portion as a main course, only to realise, as you finish it, that it was exactly the right amount.' 'A perfect stocking-filler of a book that shows that short-form fiction can be as vibrant and as healthy as any densely realised full-length novel.' Louise Doughty, The Observer'Smith serves up a smasher.'Leyla Sanai, The Independent On Sunday Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Pock. Smash. ( )