Books › On Beauty
Women's Prize for Fiction 2006
On Beauty
First published 2005 · 676 pages
A sprawling, sharp-witted campus novel that dissects the messy intersections of race, class, and marriage with profound empathy.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like stepping onto a crisp, autumnal New England college campus where every conversation is a battlefield of ideas and egos. It is a sprawling, polyphonic experience that balances biting academic satire with a deeply empathetic portrait of a fractured family. The narrative moves at a steady, observant pace, allowing the reader to luxuriate in the sharp, witty prose and the incredibly precise dialogue that captures the nuances of race, class, and generational divides. The mood is both intellectually rigorous and emotionally messy, wrapping you in the chaotic warmth of domestic life. It will delight readers who crave rich, character-driven sagas where the personal is inextricably linked to the political, and where human flaws are treated with both wry humor and profound grace.
- Mood
- autumnal
- intellectually charged
- emotionally messy
- bustling
- Tone
- wry
- satirical
- empathetic
- sharp
- observant
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- messiness of marriage · class and racial identity · academic hypocrisy · the search for authentic beauty · ideological divides
- The writing
- Expansive, witty, and deeply perceptive, marked by a masterful ear for dialogue and polyphonic voices.
- The arc
- Moves from fractured domestic chaos through a series of ideological and romantic collisions toward a fragile, hard-won grace.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love sprawling, messy family sagas, campus satires, and sharp social commentary wrapped in warm, intelligent prose.
Content notes
- infidelity
- racial microaggressions
- mild sexual content
About the book
"Howard Belsey is an Englishman abroad, an academic teaching in Wellington, a college town in New England. Married young, thirty years later he is struggling to revive his love for his African American wife Kiki. Meanwhile, his three teenage children - Jerome, Zora and Levi - are each seeking the passions, ideals and commitments that will guide them through their own lives." "After Howard has a disastrous affair with a colleague, his sensitive older son, Jerome, escapes to England for the holidays. In London he defies everything the Belseys represent when he goes to work for Trinidadian right-wing academic and pundit, Monty Kipps. Taken in by the Kipps family for the summer, Jerome falls for Monty's beautiful, capricious daughter, Victoria." "But this short-lived romance has long-lasting consequences, drawing these very different families into each other's lives. As Kiki develops a friendship with Mrs. Kipps, and Howard and Monty do battle on different sides of the culture war, hot-headed Zora brings a handsome young man from the Boston streets into their midst whom she is determined to draw into the fold of the black middle class - but at what price?"--BOOK JACKET
Description from Open Library.
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