Feel Free: Essays

Smith, primarily known as a fiction writer (Swing Time, NW, etc.), has added a dazzling second collection (after Changing My Mind) of nonfiction to her already impressive accomplishments. Beginning with essays on the value of public libraries in the digital age, Smith offers penetrating commentary on such subjects as Brexit, Facebook, and climate change, in pieces drawn mainly from those previously published in The New Yorker and New York Review of Books. Venturing into pop culture, she explores the dance styles of Michael Jackson and Madonna alongside those of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly—a bold but intriguing comparison. Smith's most compelling essays feature art and literary criticism. In an extensive analysis of British-Ghanaian painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, the author compares the painter's ability to provoke a narrative to that of the novelist. Works of writers, such as J.G. Ballard and Hanif Kureishi, are treated as refreshing departures from the traditional canon.