At Least She’s Not Sucking Up To The Judges

One of the novelists shortlisted for the Booker Prize obviously isn’t running for Miss Congeniality. Zadie Smith, whose latest book, On Beauty, made the shortlist, has described England, where she lives (and where the Booker is based) as being filled with “stupidity” and “vulgarity.” London, in particular, is “a disgusting place,” according to Smith. On the other hand, Smith doesn’t cut herself or her colleagues any slack, either: in the same interview, she described novel-writing as “quite stupid work.”