Swing Time

I was completely captivated by the story while also completely disliking the protagonist/narrator. Her cluelessness about anything happening around her, her passivity, her inability to ever say the right thing at the right time, all of these qualities were utterly infuriating to me. (This is one of those times where what I hate most in others is what I hate most in myself.) Every time I put the book down it was with some level of exasperation with the narrator; yet I couldn't stop picking the book up. The story loops and circles, which I always love. And the other characters have something going on, something worth diving into feet first. Highly recommend.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that the narrator of the audio version is fantastic. Pippa Bennett-Warner was perfect for this. And on the whole, I liked the book very much. (I also had the hard copy and read parts of it even though I was mostly focused on the audiobook.) I do think the book comes down too hard on the “White Savior Syndrome,” although it does–begrudgingly, I thought–acknowledge the good intentions of some who want to do good in Africa and elsewhere. But my real concern here, and the reason I've given the book just 4 stars instead of 5, is structural. There's nothing wrong with telling two stories at once, but they seem to be only loosely connected–the story of the narrator's obsession with her childhood friend Tracey and the story of the narrator's work for an international pop star who is creating a school for girls in Africa. One sheds only a small amount of light on the other. Still, I'm glad I read it, and Smith is an excellent stylist.