On Beauty by Zadie Smith

I wanted to like this book more than I think I actually did. Zadie Smith is an incredibly talented writer, and obviously very smart, but this 400-something page book about a mixed-race family living in a fictional east coast college town just felt like it was trying too hard. Kind of like Dawson's Creek or Juno with all the unrealistic dialogue.

Anyway, the plot centers around Howard, a white art history professor from England, his African-American wife, Kiki, and their 3 kids, Jerome, Zora, and Levi. Howard cheats on Kiki, Jerome is a renegade Christian, Zora is a very annoying academic type, and Levi wants desperately to be "street."

Although stuff does happen, I never felt like there was a real plot to the book. And then after the climax, the story quickly ends leaving half of the plotlines dangling. Come to think of it, that was my biggest complaint about Smith's other book, White Teeth. Looks like I won't be first in line for her next novel :)