Today, we’re wrapping up our spring season with Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, a theme-driven novel that recreates the social world of an elite liberal arts college, exploring issues through nuanced satire on race, class, and beauty. We dig into the stories of the Belsey and Kipp families and Smith’s use of the academic setting to discuss identity and social satire. Our pairings for On Beauty include callbacks to previous classic episodes, essays by Zadie Smith, and surprising historical fiction.

Our Slow Down Summer Read Along of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is starting soon! Just like our readalongs for The Odyssey and The Custom of the Country, you can expect exclusive Patreon content, including book clubs and classes, to guide you through this ginormous classic. We’d love for you to join us! Go to patreon.com/novelpairings to sign up.

Books Mentioned:

There is Confusion by Jessie Redmon Fauset

Passing by Nella Larsen

Members Only by Sameer Pandya

Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Love Marriage by Monica Ali

Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

149. On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Novel Pairings