Zadie Smith pays homage to her late friend and fellow author, Martin Amis, in her new compilation titled “Dead and Alive.” This collection features a mix of essays, speeches, and an interview with a Spanish journalist, which span nearly a decade of her work alongside a dozen new pieces. During Amis’s memorial in 2024, Smith referred to him as “England’s Only Living Writer,” reflecting the sentiment among her contemporaries in the 1980s that he was the sole writer producing truly impactful literature.
Smith herself has ascended to the ranks of literary elites. In conversations with a fellow editor, they speculated about which writers are the most recognizable in public; names like Karl Ove Knausgaard and Zadie Smith emerged, while Jonathan Franzen was noted as somewhat less recognizable due to his unassuming appearance.
While Smith’s celebrated status may occasionally overshadow her reflections in the essays—making it difficult to maintain a self-deprecating tone, especially when recalling her early attempts to interview Hilary Mantel in 2006—her intellectual prowess persists throughout her writing. Many of the essays in “Dead and Alive” shine with her vibrant curiosity, as she engages deeply with the complexities of modern existence, tackling themes of terror and anxiety with a serious yet approachable tone. Smith’s work continues to resonate, proving that her contributions to literature are not just relevant, but vital in today’s world.