The Fraud by Zadie Smith

 

The imprint of colonialism in Jamaica is one of the central themes of Smith’s novel which seeks to explain the meaning of authenticity. Mrs. Eliza Touchet, the abolitionist housekeeper of a Victorian home in eighteenth-century England, sees that integrity varies depending on who’s worth is being measured. The novel’s noble intentions are not enough to see the plot through as it gets tied up in multiple strands that stall momentum. The established authors featured here lack authenticity, foregoing lived experiences for glamorous stories that push copies. To them it doesn’t matter that “the poor don’t need literature, they need bread.”