This was my first ever Zadie Smith book and I expected to be wowed a lot more than I was.

I think in part it's just difficult to like, sympathize with, or care about the main character. She's just ... there. And I think that's really the problem. She's not actually fleshed out enough initially that she has any sort of character arc, so a coming-of-age story about her just kind of falls flat. I would happily have read a book about her mother, her father, Tracey, the bodyguard (I forget his name), or like ... basically any other character, because everyone else has an excitement and a life of their own in a way that the protagonist doesn't.

Because the main character is clearly just a background for social commentary, the social commentary to me really falls flat. Like. I study critical race theory, I really like that sort of thing, but it just felt forced here. It felt in places like the author had constructed the narrative to air out as many grievances as possible without any sort of coherence. First it's about the hardship of being mixed race growing up in London, then there's some half-baked critique of the global humanitarian regime, and then there's a totally underdeveloped reference to cultural appropriation that the author just sort of expects us to "get." And with a totally un-engaging protagonist you just really can't be bothered to care.

Also, the ending? It just doesn't make sense. Why does she make him come to England just to like ... abandon him? Why not just leave him in Senegal?