Zadie Smith impressed me a great deal with White Teeth and Autograph Man. I loved her metaphors — clever and evocative. The stories were interesting and a revealing look at the colorful life of immigrants in Great Britain. So when she wrote On Beauty, I naturally felt I’d have to read it eventually. I found a copy in the discount pile at Borders and was excited to get reading.

I was disappointed. The cool metaphors were gone, and just a chapter in, the strong language was way too frequent. I flipped through the book some more to see if it continued, and … well, it did. I glanced at pages and saw plenty of uses of strong language, and some ickily detailed, vulgar sex scenes. Yikes! I put it down, and now it will find its way out of my house and into other hands. Zadie, not pretty.