Review: Feel Free - Essays by Zadie Smith




Feel Free is a collection of essays (some old, some new) by the English writer, Zadie Smith.

WHO WOULD ENJOY READING IT?
People who love reading heavy, analytical essays. Those with a liking for free-flowing, simple prose should stay clear.

WHAT I LOVE MOST ABOUT "FEEL FREE"
The author's insights are unique and interesting enough to make me want to read more. One of the essays, titled “Generation Why”, is particularly insightful.

Generation Why discusses the link between the quirks of the founders of social media - Facebook in particular - and the effects on its users.

For example, did you know that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is red-green colourblind? This means blue is the colour he can see the most and the best. This is why Facebook is mostly blue.

Going beyond colour schemes, the author further argues few points that show how Zuckerberg's deep-set ideas are woven into Facebook and how those philosophies are changing the way Facebook users think and relate to one another.

WHAT I DO NOT LIKE
Few of the essays seem inaccessible. There are some ramblings and lack of coherent train of thought on the pages make some paragraphs difficult to enjoy.

MEMORABLE PASSAGE
"It feels important to remind ourselves, at this point, that Facebook, our new beloved interface with reality, was designed by a Harvard sophomore with a Harvard sophomore’s preoccupations. What is your relationship status? (Choose one. There can be only one answer. People need to know.) Do you have a ‘life’? (Prove it. Post pictures.) Do you like the right sort of things? (Make a list. Things to like will include: films, music, books and television, but not architecture, ideas or plants).
“But here I fear I am becoming nostalgic. I am dreaming of a Web that caters to a kind of person who no longer exists. A private person. A person who is a mystery, to the world and - which is more important - to herself."
.......
Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith hits stores in February 2018. Available in all major online bookstores.
Many thanks to Penguin Press for review copy.

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