Zadie Smith’s quirky writing is always a great choice for me. Grand Union did not disappoint. This collection of short stories is fierce and witty and wonderful. She experiments a bit with various writing styles while keeping it very Zadie-Smith-esque, which I appreciated. Some of the stories dragged on a bit long and felt a touch tedious, though. 

Partly due to the fact that it’s a short story anthology, but some of the characters did feel unreal. It’s possible this was highly intentional, which is fine, but it did make some of the stories much harder to connect with. Otherwise, though, the characters were fairly well developed throughout. I particularly enjoyed Kelso Deconstructed and the character’s journey in that story. I also loved the characterization of society in Lazy River, which kind of drove that short story home for me. 

Each of the stories was unique in its use of plot which I heavily appreciated. I liked that I didn’t have a format I could expect and that every piece felt unique. Some of the short stories were a bit too tedious to love, but most kind of melted on your tongue once you got to the end. Very rewarding plots, for me. 

Okay, so the last story might have been one of my faves, which has pushed this rating upwards. Overall, the book’s ending was its strongest, with the last several stories working very well for me.