New Yorker Fiction Review #184: "Crazy They Call Me" by Zadie Smith
 |
| (Photo credit: The New Yorker Magazine) |
I had a little trouble getting into this story before I realized it was about Billie Holliday (somehow I missed or did not recognize the picture of Holliday used as the cover image), and even after Zadie Smith "pulls the punch" by referencing the song "Strange Fruit" I was still not crazy about it, simply as a work of fiction.
It is an interesting character study about an artist whose life begins to unravel as she puts politics (specifically Civil Rights) more at the forefront of her work, and now that I know it's about Holliday I would like to go back and re-read it to see if there were any clues I missed (other than...yunno...the photograph).
As stories go, however, first person character explorations like this -- especially when they have a central pillar as large and overwhelming as being about Billie Holliday -- just seem like Creative Writing Workshop excercises, and I was a little disappointed by this offering from Zadie Smith.
Comments