Zadie Smith's On Beauty

I have just finished one of the most beautiful and compelling novels I have ever read. Zadie Smith's On Beauty is truly an amazing book. Smith is a young author, about 35 years old, and she has written three novels: White Teeth, The Autograph Man, and On Beauty. I haven't read either of the first two, but they have achieved enormous critical acclaim. She was brought on at Harvard as a Radcliffe fellow following either her first or second book. Both of these first two, I'm told, fall into that genre of hysterical realism, but On Beauty is more akin to some of the great fin de siecle English novels or Modern English novels by Forster (specifically), Lawrence, or Hardy. There were times when I got chills and even cried reading her novel. I haven't read anything recently that caused that visceral of a reaction in me, and I have read a lot in the last few months. Her novel is truly moving, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Buy it or check it out of your library, and read it immediately.