The Autograph Man.

by Zadie Smith Random House, October 2002 $24.95, ISBN 0-375-50186-X

Two years after her highly acclaimed debut novel, White Teeth, Zadie Smith is back with The Autograph Matt. An oddly constructed tale with a post-modern, existential sensibility-there are diagrams, lists, poems, and even a little Yiddish in this novel--that once again mines a polyglot cultural world similar to White Teeth.

Alex-Li Tandem, a collector and purveyor of autographs, is desperately searching for a rare signature of a silent-movie star. The story explores the larger issues of a world obsessed with celebrity and Alex-Li's search for spiritual enlightenment.

Although Smith's first novel was populated with various multiethnic, multiracial characters, Autograph Man is less so. Smith, much like Andrea Lee in Interesting Women, populates this novel with passing references to race, but on the whole, the characters are mostly Jewish. Indeed, Autograph Man appropriates the Jewish experience as a metaphor for exploring issues of cultural identity and alienation. The introduction to the novel includes an excerpt from the late comic Lenny Bruce that captures the essence of The Autograph Man:

"Dig: I'm Jewish. Count Basie's Jewish. Ray Charles is Jewish. Eddie Cantor's goyish. B'nai B'rith is goyish; Hadassah, Jewish."

In other words, we're all Jewish.

For readers who decide it's worth it to wade through the muddy waters of identity politics, which sometimes makes the novel difficult to follow, there is a compelling narrative buried in The Autograph Man. If nothing else, Smith is to be applauded for writing an unconventional story about the complexities of race and cultural identity.

--Evette Porter is BIBR's executive editor.