The Autograph Man
by Zadie Smith
Random House

Part of the success of Zadie Smith's first novel "White Teeth" had to do with how accepting the literary public is these days of a plotless, sprawling text with no definitively central character. Readers accept this sort of thing, that is, if the wit and wealth of characterization are as forthcoming as the devices were in "White Teeth"; if it speaks so eloquently and directly to that most particularly contemporary concern, the negotiation of race and ethnicity in a post-colonial metropolis. The novel was received so well, with such an embarrassment of accolades, that it's now difficult to assess the novelist's second offering, "The Autograph Man," without referring to the first.

"The Autograph Man" charts the course of Alex-Li Tandem, a collector of famous autographs — "the savior of objects that might otherwise be lost" — through the banal world carved out by other such collectible obsessives. "It was easy to forget, when one was an autograph man, that names on paper are the very least of what is traded." Smith is immediately referring to the inconsequential space that the autograph trade occupies in the larger scheme of global buying and selling, but she also suggests another meaning: that an autograph signifies fame, and exists as the holder's brief and vicarious brush with the immortality of belonging to popular record.

The novel's handling of fame is often trite, but the novel is less about fame than it is a coming-of-age story about a likeable protagonist, which is unfortunately even more trite. There is a pop cultural referentiality running throughout "The Autograph Man" that is strongly reminiscent of Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity," which is disheartening to see in a writer so seemingly able to transcend the topical. If nothing else, Smith writes about laddish young men more evocatively and more endearingly than her male contemporaries: "Somewhere in Alex's head, he is the greatest, most famous person you never heard of." But then, that sort of thing is not really what readers are looking for from this author.

The prose is wonderful and the characters are complex, but the first half of the book is predicated on the flimsy plot line of Alex having discovered a particularly rare autograph — the very object of his professional quest — after a night of extreme intoxication. Is it real or did he forge it? Will he sell it? Et cetera. The second portion of the novel is more challenging, but the increasingly severe movements of plot feel forced. This makes for an engaging, page-turninging read, but one that feels awkward and unbalanced.

Ultimately, the novel's structural strengths and the eloquence of the writing save "The Autograph Man" from being a merely endearing and clever tale, despite the limitations of its plot. It's a curiously uneven novel that simultaneously succeeds and fails. Of course, we expect a little more from such a promising novelist as Zadie Smith. From many other writers, this novel would be considered great work.

— Cory O'Malley (comalley@hotmail.com)