''The Autograph Man'', published in 2002, is the second novel by

Zadie Smith Zadie Smith FRSL (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor ...

. It follows the progress of a Jewish-Chinese Londoner named Alex-Li Tandem, who buys and sells

autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Inter ...

s for a living and is obsessed with celebrities. Eventually, his obsession culminates in a meeting with the elusive American-Russian actress Kitty Alexander, a star from Hollywood's Golden Age. In 2003, the novel won the

Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize The Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize is an annual British literary prize inaugurated in 1977. It is named after the host ''Jewish Quarterly'' and the prize's founder Harold Hyam Wingate. The award recognises Jewish and non-Jewish writers r ...

. The novel was a commercial success, but was not as well received by readers and critics as her previous and first novel, '' White Teeth'' (2000). Smith has stated that before she started work on ''The Autograph Man'' she had

writer's block Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Mike Rose found that this creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or th ...

Reception

As with her first novel, ''White Teeth'', the critic James Wood was harsh. He said: "this is the closest a contemporary British writer has come to sounding like a contemporary American writer – the result is disturbingly mutant." He denounced her "cute digest chapter headings", her "silly epigraphs", her "informational interpolations" and her vacant main character. He also felt that the novel's "obsession" with Jewishness, and the way in which the subject was treated, made it clear that the book was by a non-Jew. Furthermore, he said that "she seems to like (Alex Li-Tandem, the protagonist) much more than we do", and he speculated that he was actually a reflection of herself. At the conclusion, he did mention that certain sentences displayed brilliance, but these were not enough to save the novel.

References

2002 British novels English novels Novels set in London Hamish Hamilton books Novels by Zadie Smith {{2000s-novel-stub