Reply to comment

I love this idea that all you can really know from an author is what they put on the page and how even if its not what they meant, its THERE, so it means whatever we want it to mean. I learned in high school a few close reading rules, all of which I can't remember, but this was definetly one of them. If its there, its there. You are never allowed to assume that this is what the author meant, because you can never really know, and even if you could know, it wouldn't matter.

Maybe Smith had many intentions for this book. All we can do is guess whether or not she acheived them based on what we know about her and her novel and our own intuition. Then again, maybe Smith's only goal was to make us sit here and ponder for weeks on end about what the hell she meant in her book. Congrats, Zadie, you win.