NW: Host Summary & Analysis

The novel’s non-chronological structure once again means that the audience already knows the future of these characters—Nathan will not go on to have the successful life that it seems like he’ll have as a handsome schoolboy. The way that people like Felix and Nathan are doomed in the structure of the novel helps to suggest that perhaps they don’t have total control over their lives—that it’s not possible for everyone to be the author of their own dictionary.

As Leah and Keisha become teenagers, the differences that have existed between them for a while become more prominent. With her new interests, Leah is attempting to do something similar to what her parents are doing and improve her social standing. Keisha has a different experience, and the way that people mistake her for older hints at how she will have to fight to make people see her as she wants them to see her (in part because of her race).

Although the relationship between Keisha and Leah is not openly romantic, sex nevertheless does play a role in their bond as friends. From the very beginning, they used to bond over talking about the boys they liked. The dildo that Leah gives Keisha is a more extreme version of that, and it shows how on issues like sex, Leah is the one leading the way.

Keisha’s thoughts about suicide in this passage hint at how she hides her difficulties from those around her. She has a strong desire to please other people, whether it’s her family or Leah, but this passage forces her to confront the difficult fact that often it will not be possible to live a life that will please everyone.

In many ways, Marcia is still trying to make up for the opening passage of this chapter, where she lost track of Keisha at the pool while watching Cheryl. While Leah represented something new and different to Keisha, Rodney’s Caribbean background and membership in her church make him more familiar, which she dislikes at first but soon warms up to.

The more time Keisha spends apart from Leah, the more the two of their lives begin to go in different directions. Keisha also seems to be noticing race more, as she increasingly spends time with people who look like her, like Rodney and the Barbadian career counselor instead of Leah.  

Although Leah and Keisha’s reunion isn’t hostile, they also don’t seem to be able to understand each other in the way they did when they were younger. Leah has been more privileged than Keisha for a while, but Leah’s poor exam scores suggest that perhaps her choices will start coming back to haunt her.

The novel rarely mentions the year outright but often references events that help connect the novel to the timeline of the real world (Kurt Cobain, lead singer and guitarist of the band Nirvana, died in 1994). This news story also continues Keisha’s fascination with suicide, which seems to interest her because, like sex, it’s such a taboo topic.

Keisha’s alienation from her peers shows the cost that she pays for trying to follow the rules and do what Marcia wants. Still, Keisha prefers this to the alternative: a place like Leah’s university where she feels totally out of place.

Although Rodney and Keisha’s relationship deepens at university, there is also something casual and unromantic about how it progresses.

Keisha’s decision to change her name to Natalie comes at a pivotal time in her life: shortly after she starts having sex as well as shortly after she learned how white the population of Leah’s university is. The fact that the name “Natalie” is more likely to belong to a white person than “Keisha” seems to be an important factor behind the change.

University introduces Natalie to the type of people she never would have met before in church or at Caldwell. Frank is attractive to Natalie for a variety of reasons—not just physically, but also because he promises something new as well as a higher social status.

This passage once again shows how sex plays a role in Leah and Natalie’s relationship, even though they themselves aren’t romantically involved or having sex with each other. As Leah mentions in the first chapter, she has several sexual partners before she meets Michel, and yet none of them seem to be able to provide the different type of intimacy—of really knowing Leah and knowing her past—that Keisha represents for her.

Although Keisha has created a new identity by changing her name to Natalie, she still hasn’t quite figured out what kind of person Natalie is. She knows for certain that Natalie is no longer the type of person who ends up with Rodney, but Imran provides a more confusing option. Natalie flirts with the idea of becoming an idealist and a radical, only to turn hard in the opposite direction toward conservatism by the time she’s having dinner parties with Frank, Leah, and Michel.

Natalie has learned at university how important possessions are as status symbols—and that it might even be worth going into debt in order to keep up with her peers. Although Leah and Frank’s costumes represent radical Black intellectuals, the concept of a costume could also suggest that they are only engaging with the ideas of these intellectuals on a surface level.

Like Natalie, Frank’s brushes with activism (like telling the professors that the university isn’t diverse enough) seem to be short-lived and don’t carry over with him after college. Perhaps he is even trying to impress Natalie with something he thinks she’ll like. Ironically, he ends up impressing her more by making a mistake (and then apologizing) than he probably would’ve otherwise.

A train guard is not a particularly high-status job, and this reflects how as well-off as Frank is, his early life has given him humility that Natalie can connect to.

Like Natalie’s short-lived political radical phase, it turns out that Leah’s “alternative” phase may also be coming to an end. Although the women go to different universities, their lives continue to develop in parallel ways, with both meeting their husbands within six months of each other.

Frank believes that a person shapes their own destiny through hard work, but this passage shows his hypocrisy by revealing how he failed a test and still had a job handed to him anyway.

The pupillage system, which involves a long period without pay, puts people like Natalie at a disadvantage. Without Frank, Natalie might not be able to afford to continue her studies. But as much as Natalie needs the money, she has put off asking Frank until her last resort for a reason: she knows that taking the money will cause her to lose some of her independence.

Frank’s accusation is not totally wrong (Marcia did probably make a bad choice by lending money to her pastor), but it’s an oversimplification that is ironic given the bad choices that Frank himself made when taking his bar exam.

The details of Natalie’s marriage and honeymoon come up quickly in the novel with little fanfare. As happy as Natalie is with Frank at first, this passage suggests that her relationship with im lacks the spark and novelty that she appreciated when she first met him.

This sexual harassment at the office shows yet again how the system is stacked in ways that make it difficult for people like Natalie to survive. The fact that Johnnie may be harassing others suggests how common his behavior is.

The school wants to blame Natalie for being antisocial rather than condemning Johnnie Hampton-Rowe, who initially created an environment where Natalie didn’t want to socialize. For this reason, Natalie is skeptical of Theodora.

“Hysterical” is often a gendered insult that applies more often to women than men. It’s also an interesting word for Zadie Smith, whose first novel, White Teeth, received generally positive reviews but criticized by one famous critic for being “hysterical realism.” In spite of its shifting, experimental style, NW is generally closer to more traditional realism than the heightened version of reality in some of Smith’s other works.

Natalie’s decision to turn down a potentially lucrative job to accept a less prestigious position at a smaller firm suggests how, in spite of all her efforts to improve her standing in the world, a part of her still remains an idealist.

Like Leah dealing with Shar, Natalie learns that doing the right thing can be difficult. Natalie joined her firm to help people, but she finds that she is still bothered by how some people still talk down on her for not having bigger ambitions or a more prestigious job. Natalie’s decision to split costs on her new apartment with Frank provides her with at least something she can take pride in. On the other hand, that they split the deposit down the middle—even though Frank makes much more money than Natalie—demonstrates how people who start out ahead tend to stay ahead while people who come from comparatively disadvantaged backgrounds must work harder to achieve the same markers of success.  

Once again, there are echoes of the situation between Shar and Leah in Natalie’s story. Natalie feels pity for her mother just as Leah felt pity toward Shar.

When Leah goes to dinner with Frank and Natalie, she sometimes get jealous of their connection, but this passage shows that Frank and Natalie have their own hidden problems.

The internet shows how people around the world are becoming increasingly connected—something that also happens in Northwest London. Natalie’s attempts to blend in to the world Frank inhabits have had the side effect of making it more difficult to relate to her family members like Cheryl, demonstrating how social classes can lead to division.

Natalie’s brief conversation with Nathan continues to show how after all the transformations she’s gone through, she’s lost the ability to communicate with people from her past. She also seems a little surprised to realize that, just as she became a different person after leaving home, so did her brother, Jayden.

While Natalie is initially surprised at how different she’s become from the people she used to know, this meeting with Jayden also suggests that she and her brother have more in common than they realize. Natalie again feels limited by her new life, which prevents her from staying out late with Jayden and getting to know him better.

Natalie’s continued isolation from the other people around her forces her to rely more and more on Frank. She continues to struggle with the concept that it’s not possible to craft an identity that will appeal to everyone she knows.

On the issue of motherhood, Natalie and Leah go back to how they used to act as teenagers. Leah remains rebellious and a bit of a contrarian, determined not to do what people expect of her. Meanwhile, Natalie remains eager to do what it takes to fit in.

The economic crash mentioned on the news probably refers to the crash of 2008, which led to the Great Recession. Natalie’s increasing reliance on Frank has caused her to become defensive of people who criticize him. Still, the regret that Natalie feels when looking at Naomi and Spike using the Internet seems to be a reflection of her own self-doubt and low self-esteem.

Natalie becomes increasingly aware of all the things she’s had to sacrifice to fit into Frank’s world. She thought that she would be able to do it all, but going back to an African market like where Marcia would have shopped reminds Natalie of how much her like has changed due to her new social mobility.

A Rasta believes in Rastafari, a religion with roots in Jamaica. Rastafari was influenced by the Black activist and political theorist Marcus Garvey (who may have inspired the name of the Rasta man “Marcus” here as well as potentially the “Garvey House” that appears throughout the novel). Natalie’s disagreement with Marcus (whose Rastafarianism connects him to Jamaica) further shows how far she has gotten away from her family’s Caribbean roots.

The beginning of the novel doesn’t reveal how relatively recently Colin’s death occurred, and knowing that Leah was still dealing with grief puts the first part of the novel in a different context, particularly when it comes to her reaction over the death of her dog, Olive.

In the period between Rodney and Frank, Natalie never got much satisfaction from sex, but she was always intrigued by the possibility that her life could have gone in a different direction, with her providing aid in Sarajevo with her old boyfriend Imran or something like that. This encounter seems to be an attempt to get back to that sense of possibility, but both Keisha and the boys find disappointment.

Natalie’s indifference to her maid is the final step on her journey to leave her past behind and fully joined the wealthier social class to which Frank belongs.

Natalie’s carelessness with her laptop seems to suggest that she is looking for an excuse to leave her current life behind. Her answer that she’s going “nowhere” could refer to geography (that she has no particular destination), but it could also suggest a feeling of being stuck in life.