‘‘ZADIE SMITH Syndrome” was a term coined back in the 2000s — possibly by Private Eye but it may have been The Spectator — to describe a novel by an author whose celebrity is such that whatever flaws their book may possess are instantly reimagined as positive virtues.
It derived from a Times Literary Supplement review of Ms Smith’s On Beauty — written, it scarcely needs saying, by an academic — which, having puzzled itself over various defects and inconsistencies, concluded with some bromides about the novel’s “most interesting ethical endeavour” being the way it could be seen “happily inhabiting its own apparent slightness”.
In plain English this meant: Quite frankly this novel is a disappointment. But as it comes from the pen of Zadie Smith I can only assume that she…
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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2021