“There will be many books written about the year 2020: historical, analytic, political and comprehensive accounts. This is not any of those—the year isn’t half-way done. What I’ve tried to do is organize some of the feelings and thoughts that events, so far, have provoked in me, in those scraps of time the year itself has allowed. These are above all personal essays: small by definition, short by necessity.”
What drew me to this collection was that it is the first major author I have noticed writing about the pandemic. All of the author’s royalties for this book will be donated to charity (The Equal Justice Initiative and The COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund for New York).
Zadie Smith is a well respected award winning writer. I’ve read two of her novels, White Teeth and On Beauty, both of which I enjoyed. Her writing style has been a bit ‘hit or miss’ with me, so I was not surprised that I connected deeply with some of the essays and not at all with others. Her essay on suffering called Suffering Like Mel Gibson is one that punched me in the gut. I can’t stop thinking about it. It hits home because the experience of pain and loss is so prevalent right now, and yet so different for everyone–she captures that really well. You can hear an excerpt in the video below. I also really enjoyed Postcript: Contempt as a Virus, Something to Do, and The American Exception.
Joanne's Reading Blog 
This didn’t quite hit the mark for me, but as we’ve all seen, few people are on the same page over all this, so I understand why. I find her work hit and miss too, but I keep reading because one just never knows whether the next one will hit the mark. I did really enjoy Swing Time.