At Lit Hub she tagged six notable re-tellings. One entry on the list:
Zadie Smith’s On Beauty nods to E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End.Read about another entry on the list.
Smith’s “sly and inventive recasting of E.M. Forster’s masterpiece” is one of those vibier response books. Certain plot furniture has been airlifted into a present day context, while some has been left behind. In Forster’s Howard’s End, a legacy dispute draws two families together around an estate. On Beauty, on the other hand, brings its players together on a college campus.
Bohemianism in the first text is made into multiculturalism in the second. And though Smith makes open reference to the language in Forster’s classic, she also invents a plenty.
On Beauty is among Kate McCusker's five top campus novels, Michael Woodson's top ten campus novels, Michelle Webster-Hein's eight titles that wrestle with the complexities of religion, Ali Benjamin's top ten classic stories retold, Brian Boone's twenty books that are absolute dorm room essentials, Ann Leary's top ten books set in New England, and Tolani Osan's ten top books that "illuminate how disparate cultures can reveal the mystery and beauty in each other and make us aware of the hardships, dreams, and hidden scars of those we share space with."
--Marshal Zeringue
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