Beautiful

About This Novel

"Beauty" revolves around two families who also come from academia but uphold diametrically opposed values. The main scene is set in New England, and part of the plot takes place in London. Through a series of cultural wars and emotional entanglements on both sides of the ocean between the Belseys and the Kipps, the novel connects the fierce conceptual collisions in many aspects from family life, political stance to personal, academic and political fields. It places poor moral behavior in lofty idealism, trying to explain the meaning of love and beauty, and the various impacts that life may have on them. With the disintegration of the Belsey family, it reflects the confusion of our unstable era and goes straight to the core of the family. Facing the ruins of liberalism and the hypocrisy of right-wing conservatism, the love and beauty embodied in the friendship between the hostesses of the two families, Kiki Belsey and Karin Kipps, become another important theme of the novel. Although their husbands competed with each other in academic fields, their friendship transcended differences in class, politics, and religious views and became "the only bond." The novel's bold and noisy plot foreshadowing, its perfectly set-up witty or acerbic dialogue, and its penetrating portrayal of the absurd current situation in academia all reflect Zadie Smith's masterful control of grand, Forster-esque themes: friendship, marriage, social conflict, and the expression of artistic debate. In a way, this is a heroic attempt to give dignity and meaning to modern life through the medium of Bloomsbury writing.

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