Swing Time is a novel about two girls growing up bonding over a shared skin color and love of dance in London, and their paths taking very different directions. It weaves through the years mostly following the unnamed narrator, and her relationship with her childhood friend Tracy. As kids, Tracy is the star of the show. As adults, the narrator works as a personal assistant to a big pop star and has mostly lost touch with her childhood friend.

I don't know if Zadie Smith is for me. It took me a long time to get into a groove with this book. I don't like books where it feels like the narrator is just floating though life and going along with whatever... this narrator was so lackluster for me. I was bored by her perspective and lack of... opinion? Action? I really have a problem with passive narrators. I don't know. Something about the writing made this a serious effort for me to finish reading.

Towards the end, I started enjoying the book more. Part of the plot has the narrator traveling with the pop star to Africa to build a school for girls. The issues surrounding the school seemed plausible, and reading about the cultural differences and the narrator's relationship with her African ancestry made her more interesting and human.

This book got a lot of hype, and overall I'm glad I read it, although it did not leave me yearning for more Zadie Smith.