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I am fascinated so far by Zadie Smith's ability to describe normal situations with such attention to detail and precise wording. She does it so effortlessly that the scenes just seem to flow, the characters moving and waiting for us exactly as we left them every time we put down the book and resume it later. I skimmed over Hayley's post and found that she pointed out an aspect in the beginning of the novel that I, too, found especially interesting for multiple reasons: when Kiki changes her behavior and way of speaking when Monique, the black housekeeper, arrives. It caused me to really question Kiki's character and her place- what made her uncomfortable about a woman of the same race cleaning up after her as a mode of occupation is that the situation speaks to the inequality of the class system and the American Dream as well as Kiki's and her family's place in the intellectual sphere.

The family dynamic is amazing, and I am enthralled by Howard's position in the family. I am not sure where he stands, and the family's initial animosity towards the Kipps family raised questions. But I loved Smith's line in between Howard and Kiki's quarrel over where the Kipps's phone number was, which Howard had mistakenly left behind at a conference (the first explication that he chooses his occupation over his family: "when [he] had more important things on [his] mind than [his] wife and family" [page 13]). As Howard asks to talk about it later, Smith writes: "When you are guilty, all you can ask for is a deferral of the judgment." Touche! Touche!!!