Kinetic Joy

Swing Time savors the full palate of women’s intimacy: not solely sweet but briny, bitter, tart by turns. Zadie Smith's latest novel explores friendship’s outer bounds: its protagonist speaks of Tracey in infatuation’s idiom, “besotted” with her almost at once, and eagerly recounts each “cooling-off,” slight, and hiatus their relationship endures.

Lindsay Gail Gibson reviews Swing Time by Zadie Smith.