Reviews round-up
Dead and Alive
by Zadie Smith
3 of 8 critics positive
9 reviews: 1 rave, 2 positives, 2 mixed, 3 pans; 1 not stating a verdict in public
What the critics said
“gives a masterclass in the modern essay”
Zadie Smith gives a masterclass in the modern essay
“doesn’t tiptoe around hard truths”
Zadie Smith’s sharp essay collection ‘Dead and Alive’ doesn’t tiptoe around hard truths
“rigorous, curious essays”
Zadie Smith and Anne Enright: the art of paying attention
“her fiction better captures the messiness of public and private selves”
Review: All the Zadies — empathetic and problematic — are on display in her latest essay collection
“on actual politics, she is less assured”
Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith review – essays for an age of anxiety
“patchy and strangely bloodless”
Zadie Smith’s new book shows authors shouldn’t publish every thought
“ragbag, anxious collection of essays”
Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith: A ragbag, anxious collection of essays
“Zadie Smith has nothing to say”
Zadie Smith has nothing to say She is a master of self-regarding equivocation
Zadie Smith Considers Art in the Age of Relentless Progress
Verdicts are read from each outlet's own headline and summary; quotes are their words, credited and linked. Where a paywalled summary does not give the critic's view, we say so rather than guess. How it works.
