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Swing Time cover art

Swing Time

By: Zadie Smith
Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner
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Summary

Dazzlingly energetic and deeply human, Swing Time is a story about friendship and music and true identity, how they shape us and how we can survive them. Moving from Northwest London to West Africa, it is an exuberant dance to the music of time.

Two brown girls dream of being dancers - but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early 20s, never to be revisited but never quite forgotten, either....

©2016 Zadie Smith (P)2016 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about Swing Time

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  • Overall
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Smith's best yet with perfect narrator

I choose Swing Time because all my friends were raving about it. They were right! This is a gripping, perfectly-paced read which explores our main character's challenging relationships with her mother, employer and - above all - her childhood best friend. There is a toxic dimension to all these key female relationships but Smith excels in showing the complicity and complexity of each. Bennett-Warner provides the perfect reading (especially of our insecure main character) and I hope this will be the first of many recordings for audible.

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5 people found this helpful

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Parallel Lives

Would you consider the audio edition of Swing Time to be better than the print version?

I think that, in my own particular case, this is an irrelevant question. Audible suits for commuting and print versions for when I devote my full attention to the book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The unnamed narrator's mother was my favourite character. I could sympathise with the idea put across in describing her that time spent not learning was wasted time - even if this means time spent with family and friends.

Have you listened to any of Pippa Bennett-Warner’s other performances? How does this one compare?

This was the first of Pippa Benne-Warner's narrations I've heard but I was very impressed. She seemed effortlessly to be able to supply many contrasting accents: English - of varied age, class, colour, gender; American, Brazilian, Australian, West African.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Neither laughing nor crying resulted - perhaps that's being a man, or simply listening while commuting. However, I was engaged with the characters and with the many difficulties and ambitions in their lives. I experienced a life-affirming sense of life being described as it is and not as one would like it. This was especially put across in describing the difference between a feasibility study as opposed to engaging with life once in the imagined country with all the real life people, customs, weather, light, foods, smells etc.

Any additional comments?

This was the first Zadie Smith book I'd 'read' and will explore further. I saw a TV adaptation of White Teeth a few years ago and will look out the book. I will also look out for Pippa Bennet-Warner's name.

The reason I entitled this review Parallel Lives is that we explore simultaneously in this book two versions of the narrator: the up-to-date version in alternate chapters, and the younger selves which slowly grew into this character. Somehow, this seemed much more revealing that a traditional timeline approach.

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3 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Tailed off into a confusing narrative

Would you try another book written by Zadie Smith or narrated by Pippa Bennett-Warner?

The narration was fine.

Any additional comments?

The story jumped around a lot and I didn't find the characters likeable. Disappointing.

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3 people found this helpful

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Couldn't stop reading

Loved the story, the subtlety of the characterisations and thoughtful insights into race celebrity, power of money. I think this is Zadie Smith's best book.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Superb performance

Zadie Smith's novel absolutely brought alive by this superb reading of Swing Time. Each character distinct and memorable. Stellar work by Pippa Bennett-Warner. A terrific listening experience.

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Really disappointing, despite a decent narration.

Zadie Smith has long been a writer I’ve admired and often loved, but this book is seriously turgid stuff. You keep waiting to care, and it never comes. The characters are mostly ciphers (often patronising ones), except for the narrator, who’s... well, *nothing*, really. She’s so boring, such a non-person.

Pippa Bennett-Warner does a creditable job (despite being a bit inconsistent with accents: the narrator’s mother often slips from her established light Jamaican-English into Bennett-Warner’s own pleasant default RP), but she can’t save this from being a really disappointing novel.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Soul-moving realism

This is probably my favourite Zadie Smith novel, deeply touching with characters bursting to life out of the pages. Hitting on themes of racial identity and pop culture, it is a brilliant contemporary take on what young adults are currently experiencing. From cultural appropriation to the effects of globalisation all summed up in the relationship of one young woman and her peers.

Her relationship with her mother is one of generational divide while with her friend Tracy is one of class divide. The protagonist's character is the epitome of confusion and attempting to find a place in the world.

The reader is fantastic able to switch to several accents at a time keeping the dialogue lively. Well worth all the praise.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Not the best from Zadie!

I like Zadie Smith but this was a bit mundane and having reached the end I wasn't overwhelmed by the story. Excellent narrator though.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant Story

I love listening to Zadie Smith's books, this is my fourth and possibly my favourite.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Detailed, moving, thought-provoking story

I have wanted to tell everyone I see about this story. It is intricate and intriguing, intensely human and familiar yet taking me to places I can barely imagine. The narrator is superb. Utterly engaging and engrossing.

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