Swingtime by Zadie Smith

 

Two young girls grow up in London in housing.  They meet in dance but Tracey is the one with talent, the one who grows up quickly.  The other girl loves music and singing but dance is not her talent.  One girl has a very indulgent mother, one a mother who insists that her daughter must be better, be smarter, be more.

When the girls grow up, Tracey makes it onto the theatre scene, although only on the periphery.  The other after a dead end job, becomes an assistant to one of the world's most popular singers.  She does whatever is needed, even when Aimee, the singer, decides her next project is starting a school for girls in Africa.  Like most of her projects, Aimee loses interest after a while so the assistant is charged with trips to Africa and overseeing the project.  

This is the story of female friendships.  There is the rivalry and the disagreements, the telling of secrets and being each other's champion.  The girls' lives turn out very different and the mothers are also main characters.  One is driven to succeed, the other is driven by living through her daughter.  

Zadie Smith has written several novels that have gained acclaim, being nominated for Booker Prizes and the Women's Prize for Fiction, which her novel, On Beauty, won.  Her writing explores the lives of women of color and female friendships.  In this novel, she made the choice to never tell the reader the name of her main character from whose perspective the book is narrated.  It also delves into the mother daughter relationship and how various styles of parenting affects children.  This novel is recommended for readers of literary fiction.