Resumo de On Beauty - Smith, Zadie

This book tells the tale of the pain filled break-up of the long-standing mixed marriage between Howard and Kiki Belsy. Set in Wellington, one of those American university towns which are more English than England, London-born Howard who now lectures at Wellington University and Kiki watch as their three children, each totally diverse from each other, prepare to become independent. They live in what by all accounts is an ample and comfortable house which a couple of generations ago had been gifted to one of Kiki?s newly emancipated slave ancestors and passed to her by a family that by dint of circumstance inherited along a female line.Kiki is fat or to put it more accurately Kiki has become fat. Which in itself is unremarkable as she is in her late 50?s living in early 21st century USA. Equally unremarkable, Howard who is of a similar age has an appetite for sex which is seemingly undiminishing. What is remarkable is that despite some minor short-lived infidelities his sexual appetite continues to be for his wife.Initially one would be forgiven for believing this book to be themed around the black consciousness ? ?black is beautiful? issue but fairly early on it becomes apparent that the authoress is more interested in a kind of black feminism ? that quality of power and earth connectedness that is so often apparent in black African women and their female descendants worldwide. Whether Smith realises it or not she is recreating in her heroine the type of female for whom polygamy is not only natural but ultimately the most logical lifestyle.In the end it is Howard, who thought- provokingly is left in the house with his three children and as it turns out with more problems on his hands that his wife. Kiki although hurt by his infidelities is also honest enough to admit that her physical sexuality is waning and she is mature enough to realise that the motivation on her side for staying together irrespective of Howard?s behaviour outside the relationship has changed.Smith?s characterisation, not only of the five members of the Belsy family, but also of their various friends and foes is brilliant and bang up to date with dialogue to match. This was a highly satisfying book to read and well deserving both of its 2005 Man Book Prize short listing and the award of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2006.

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