On Beauty

A butcher does not see the animal, focusing instead on the particulars and reducing the creature to crass anatomy. So it is with Howard Belsey, a white New England college art professor and butcher's son who has spent his fruitless academic career attempting to debunk Rembrandt's genius.

But this British expat has bigger problems than the famous painter and the arrival on campus of his intellectual archenemy, black conservative Monty Kipps. Howard's first foray into infidelity has recently broken the spell of his happy 30-year marriage to Kiki, a Southern black woman. At the same time, his biracial children are busy rebelling against his cool intellectualism—Jerome pursues youthful religiosity and young Levi seeks brotherhood among Haitian activists. The Belseys and the Kippses find themselves entangled on several romantic, political and spiritual fronts, a la the Schlegels and Wilcoxes of E.M. Forster's Howards End. (The novels share opening lines, among other things.)

The Booker-nominated Smith is interested in the big questions: Has art lost its heart? Is religion the last refuge of true passion? How can white liberals reckon with black conservatism? Who owns culture? But don't be fooled: Smith writes novels, not op-ed pieces. She is a champion of the novel as a vehicle for discovery and beauty, and she never cheapens the form with clumsy agendas or speechifying.

Smith's previous outing, The Autograph Man, was universally regarded as a minor work, a placeholder following her blowup 2001 debut, White Teeth. On Beauty, therefore, can be read as the author's second turn at the big-issue novel. Ultimately, by delineating post–September 11 life on both sides of the Atlantic, the author heartbreakingly details the inescapability of family—its duties, failures, betrayals and triumphs. As Kiki Belsey realizes too late, "The greatest lie ever told about love is that it sets you free."—Jeb Gleason-Allured