Swing Time promised a fascinating story.
‘Two brown girls dream of being dancers – but only one, Tracy has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music and what constitutes a tribe or makes a person truly free.’
In reality, I think the book tried to do too much. Smith is obviously intelligent, and a keen observational commentator who is skilled in her craft, but there were so many key themes touched upon in the book that it never really felt like any were truly explored. The premise above, for instance, covered a relatively small part of the book, yet that storyline in itself could have been developed further.
Instead, the book spanned such a large time frame, focusing on certain events that failed to hold my interest. There was quite a bit of ‘telling’ vs ‘showing’ and sometimes the characters felt like vehicles devised to deliver pop culture references, pass judgement or opinion or make political references. These never felt to come from the character’s hearts, more the author.
Put simply, this book had all the ingredients to be amazing; culture, diversity and a promising storyline but for me, the storyline got lost and the characters didn’t pull me in.
Genre: Literary fiction
Rating: 3/5 ⭐️
DaydreamReader 