RaveEvening Standard (UK)After finishing French Braid, the 24th novel from the formidable American novelist, I was going about my life thinking nothing particularly radical had happened to me. And then I thought about it, and I thought about it some more, and I realised – boom – she really is a master ... It’s another of Tyler’s extraordinarily unshowy but devastating moments of indicating a family that will do strange things out of love for one another ... It’s the idea of family itself, something that has always provided such rich material for Tyler, which seems to weigh down so heavily on the Garretts ... But in each of these chapters comes a quiet moment of emotional truth – a grandmother encouraging her granddaughter’s curiosity about art, or a usually reticent brother’s unfiltered outpouring of love for his new wife – that catches us the reader off guard as much as it does the characters.
Olivia Laing
RaveEvening Standard (UK)Talk about timely: Laing began writing about bodies under siege over five years ago, and the book is being published in the middle of a pandemic. But we have become newly aware of the vulnerabilities of our bodies in the past year in other ways ... she mixes biography, memoir, psychology and art criticism to create a treasure trove of cultural curiosities and political ideas ... Laing makes an entertaining tour guide, moving like a magpie through art, history and politics, and accumulating an exhilarating set of connections ... This is Laing’s most personal book yet – she talks about her own gender identity, going on Buddhist camping retreats with an ex-boyfriend, and her years as a climate activist. But it’s her ability to describe her own experience of looking at artworks that really illuminates her topics ... It’s an ambitious, absorbing achievement that will make your brain hum, like going on a funfair ride with a very clever friend.
Zadie Smith
PositiveEvening Standard (UK)There’s something endearingly old-fashioned about her resolve not to be rushed. These are not flashy hot takes for social media, but slow, thoughtful reflections ... Smith lucidly captures the see-saw of hysteria and banality that has marked our days, freed from their ordinary scaffolding ... the highlight essay is \'Screengrabs,\' a series of vignettes about people Smith knows in New York. Her skill as a novelist comes to the fore ... Smith provides a reminder that we can use this crisis to imagine a better one, and that might inspire future conversations with our grandchildren.
