The Autograph Man

A Novel

By: Zadie Smith

Narrated by: Ben Barnes

We live in a world of signs.
But not everybody has to trade in them....

Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. A small blip in a huge worldwide network of desire, his business is to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, and occasionally fake them—all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. But what does Alex want? Only the return of his father, the reinstatement of some kind of all-powerful, benevolent God-type figure, the end of religion, something for his headache, three different girls, infinite grace, and the rare autograph of forties movie actress Kitty Alexander. With fries.

The Autograph Man is a deeply funny existential tour around the hollow things of modernity: celebrity, cinema, and the ugly triumph of symbol over experience. Through London and then New York, searching for the only autograph that has ever mattered to him, Alex follows the paper trail while resisting the mystical lure of Kabbalah and Zen, and avoiding all collectors, con men, and interfering rabbis who would put themselves in his path. Pushing against the tide of his generation, Alex-Li is on his way to finding enlightenment, otherwise known as some part of himself that cannot be signed, celebrated, or sold.


Cover title lettering by Leanne Shapton.

Critic reviews

Praise for Zadie Smith and White Teeth

“[White Teeth] is, like the London it portrays, a restless hybrid of voices, tones, and textures...with a raucous energy and confidence.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“White Teeth just may be the first great novel of the new century.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Dazzling...beguiling...wonderfully inventive...Smith is...a master of style whose prose is playful yet unaffected, mongrel yet cohesive, profound yet funny, vernacular yet lyrical.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Astonishing...Smith writes sharp dialogue for every age and race—and she’s funny as hell.”
—Newsweek

“A preternaturally gifted new writer [with] a voice that’s street-smart and learned, sassy and philosophical all at the same time.”
—The New York Times

Disappointment

This was a huge disappointment after White Teeth. It appeared that Smith had no idea where she was going and strung together not-very-funny sketches with incoherent, cartoonish characters. She tried to hide this with similarly-incoherent references to Cabala, etc

Hooked! Great narration!

I've never listened to an audio book before so it was all new to me. I started to get used to being read to. I LOVED Ben Barnes's narration. He did all the voices and really got me invested in the story. Very pleased --Tep

I Wanted to Choke the Protagonist

I enjoyed Zadie Smith’s writing style and her focus on fame, race and religion. Ben Barnes’ performance captured the characters and tone of the story perfectly. It does start off slow but it’s a necessary slow build. I really loathed the protagonist, Alex-Li, at several points, which propelled me throughout the story. I loved how the storyline played with my feelings.
Overall, I enjoyed the audiobook. 😊

Fantastic Narration!

I found this protagonist pretty unlikable. That being said the book told us on an interesting journey that compelled me to find out what happens next. Perhaps some of the traits that make the main character so frustrating are things we generally don’t like about a ourselves. There are a lot of interesting ideas that are explored during the course of the book.
The narration was fantastic! You could tell a lot of work went in to creating distinct voices for each character. Voices that were distinct but not cartoonish or caricatures. I would love to listen to more books narrated by him.

Maybe it's ...me? (But I don't think it's me.)

Can't remember the last time my apathy towards a protagonist teetered on actual contempt. This was a tedious listen for me, salvaged only by Ben Barnes gifting the story an energy it didn't deserve. He's rocky to start but soon finds his comfort zone, giving each character their own voice and doing the best he can with the source material. It took a good eight hours for the book to get interesting, and that plot line is painfully short-lived. I basically only managed to finish the listen out of spite for having spent a credit on it.

Zadie Smith seems to be quite highly regarded as an author, but I was unfamiliar with her work and this was not the best first impression. There are a few gems as far as turns-of-phrase go; there was, I think, one line in the whole text that got an honest laugh out of me. Those highlights, however, were too few and far between.

Then again, I don't claim to be some great intellect, so maybe the whole thing was lost on me. I am a natural pragmatist; I have an odd sense of humour; I've read some really cerebral/artsy/dark/weird stuff in my time. I tend to gravitate more towards books that want to be appreciated; this thing is so je-ne-sais-quoi that I'm not sure it actually expects anyone to finish it, let alone come out the other side with anything other than indifference and a wish for their time back.