Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2024-09-17
Books mentioned on Zadie Smith on Populists, Frauds and Flip Phones
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Feel Free
Discussed“so in your essay collection feel free you make this point that that we have these amorphous identities”
Where to get it
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On Beauty
On Beauty by Zadie Smith is a contemporary novel that explores family dynamics, academic rivalries, and cultural identity against the backdrop of a Boston-area university.
Recommended“if you've not read her back catalog like white teeth and on beauty and swing time I almost Envy you”
Where to get it
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Swing Time
Swing Time by Zadie Smith is a sweeping novel that follows the complex, lifelong friendship of two girls who dream of being dancers, tracing their divergent paths across London and West Africa.
Recommended“if you've not read her back catalog like white teeth and on beauty and swing time I almost Envy you”
Where to get it
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White Teeth
White Teeth by Zadie Smith is a vibrant multi-generational novel that explores multiculturalism, identity, and history through the lives of diverse families living in London.
Recommended“if you've not read her back catalog like white teeth and on beauty and swing time I almost Envy you”
Where to get it
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The Fraud
Discussed“He said these books are the same and reading it I realized they are the same they're about complicity”
Where to get it
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Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a classic nineteenth-century romantic comedy of manners that examines the turbulent relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy amidst societal pressures regarding class, marriage, and reputation.
Discussed“so like if I'm teaching Pride and Prejudice this is not a battle between woke thought and unwoke thought”
Where to get it
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Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
Discussed“and there's these books on like the you know four Arguments for the elimination of television”
Where to get it
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Amusing Ourselves to Death
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman is a prophetic media critique arguing that public discourse in modern society is being dangerously degraded by entertainment culture, television, and visual media.
Discussed“just a straightforward argument in in Neil postman's great book amusing ourselves to death where he says that the thing television is going to do to politics is make us believe politics should always be entertaining”
Where to get it
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The Director
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann is a compelling biographical novel about the acclaimed filmmaker G.W.
Recommended“well right now I'm reading the director which is by my Austrian friend Daniel kilman It's a Wonderful book about uh the filmmaker WG Pabst”
Where to get it
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Frantz Fanon
Frantz Fanon by Adam Shatz is a biographical examination of the life and legacy of the radical socialist psychiatrist and anti-colonial thinker.
Recommended“I am reading another friend's book Adam shatz on Fanon who was the radical socialist psychiatrist and that's a really really great book about F on”
Where to get it
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The Diary of Virginia Woolf
The Diary of Virginia Woolf collects the intimate daily writings of the pioneering modernist author across multiple decades and volumes.
Recommended“and the other thing I've read recently which I keep on banging on about is all of Virginia wolfes Diaries um there's five volumes”
Where to get it
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Tell Me Everything
Discussed“her last novel is called tell me anything and there's a line or tell me everything maybe”
Where to get it
