Looking into oneself
Though almost the half of the essays is dedicated to literature, they are also about discovering the writer’s true self. Zadie analyses her feelings while reading this or that novel, trying not only to understand an author but learn something about herself too. Her feelings vary – from vulnerability to anger, from happiness to sadness – when she reads a book written by a black female novelist, for she remembers the story of her own family, compares her experience with the author’s. It is interesting to observe how just one book can help a person to gain her true self.
Parents’ relationship
Zadie’s parents are an unusual couple. It seems that they have nothing in common, except for children; thus, it is not really surprising that they get divorced at some point. One might assume that the worst is behind, now everyone can move on and live happily, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. The ex-couple starts a real war against each other, trying to persuade their now adult children to take this or that side. Even though Zadie and her siblings are mature and wise enough to understand their parents’ antics, it is still hurtful to watch how your family gets destroyed.
Looking for the truth
It is really easy to be cruel. We don’t even notice how often we treat people around us mercilessly, for we are either too busy to care or just indifferent to suffering of others. Zadie understands this when she interviews her father on the topic of his experience during the Invasion of Normandy. She doesn’t have enough patience to wait until her father gathers his thoughts to share one detail or another. She is pushy, demanding, merciless even, but that is the only one way to make him speak. This is what makes journalist’s work hard.
