Zadie Smith inverts a normal plot arc with this character and this section, but I don't want to elaborate and give it away. The second section is the story of a Black man's life who matters (like all Black men!), and the multitudinous world that is a life which gets flattened by a headline. If we read this section carefully, we realise that the point of view character of the next section is introduced and one of the crimes is part of a larger plot throughout the novel. Their story is about reproduction and petty crimes committed against them. She is university educated and married to a French-Algerian immigrant who works as a hair stylist. The first part of the novel is stream of conscious, and follows Leah, a mixed race woman in her late 30s. The novel centres the very people and locations too often consigned to the periphery but of course each of these people is "the sole author of the dictionary that defines" them, in Zadie Smith's words. The stories are intimately connected, and together they form a vivid tale of North West (NW) London and its people of colour as they approach middle age and consider their own identities and lives. Each part follows a different character from a council estate and is told in a different style.
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