Intimations: Six Essays by Zadie Smith. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Intimations by Zadie Smith is a collection of six essays written at the beginning of the pandemic and published last summer. It is very much a snapshot of life just before and during the initial lockdown. Or as Smith writes in her foreword, dated May 2020, she has tried to "organise some of the feelings and thoughts that events, so far, have provoked in me, in those scraps of time the year itself has allowed."
I know people won't want to read it simply because we are still in the middle of the pandemic, which I completely understand. That's how I feel about fiction and TV/film that is even remotely pandemic related. Yet I am finding comfort in reading essays about people's personal lockdown experiences.
In less than a 100 pages, Smith explores the personal and the political - especially when writing about the impact the virus and the handling of the pandemic by both the US and UK governments has had on people from already marginalised communities.
The standout essays for me are Something to Do, Suffering Like Mel Gibson, and Screengrabs (After Berger, before the virus).
Intimations: Six Essays by Zadie Smith is published by Penguin and is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook format.