In each, Smith is able to imagine the worries and logic of others while never flinching at her own failings in the face of hardship. In the essay “Screengrabs,” for instance, she recalls a series of everyday encounters in order to prefigure the havoc that the coming pandemic will wreak, whether it be upon an IT nerd’s “youthful exuberance” and “giddy joy” or a neighbor’s faith in community. Rather, as she writes, “These are above all personal essays, small by definition, short by necessity.” And therein lies the strength of this slender volume it is in the personal that her concern for others shines through.

The second thing you should know is that in no way does Smith try to provide some kind of comprehensible account to help us make sense of everything. It grants us the perspective to recognize what’s happened to us while simultaneously bringing us closer to a time that already feels as though it belongs to a distant past. It creates more distance for us to consider the turmoil we’ve all felt.

Of course, we’ve all read about these topics to the point of surfeit, but there’s something refreshing about reading good, old-fashioned, published prose on these subjects, to sit with a book in hand rather than tablet. The first thing you should know about Zadie Smith’s slim collection of essays, Intimations, is that it concerns the first months of the pandemic, from the moments just before the threat of COVID-19 got serious up to the killing of George Floyd.

Zadie smith intimations summary