The Wife of Willesden: Incorporating; the Wife of Willesden's Tale Which Tale Is Preceded by the General Lock-in and the Wife of Willesden's Prologue and Followed by a Retraction - Softcover

Smith, Zadie

 
9780593653739: The Wife of Willesden: Incorporating; the Wife of Willesden's Tale Which Tale Is Preceded by the General Lock-in and the Wife of Willesden's Prologue and Followed by a Retraction
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0593653734 ISBN 13: 9780593653739
Verlag: Penguin Books, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

Zadie Smith's first time writing for the stage, a riotous twenty-first century translation of Geoffrey Chaucer's classic The Wife of Bath

“Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aunt. Friend.
She plays many roles round here. And never
Scared to tell the whole of her truth, whether
Or not anyone wants to hear it. Wife
Of Willesden: pissed enough to tell her life
Story to whoever has ears and eyes . . .”

In her stage-writing debut, celebrated novelist and essayist Zadie Smith brings to life a comedic and cutting twenty-first century translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic The Wife of Bath. The Wife of Willesden follows Alvita, a Jamaican-born British woman in her mid-50s, as she tells her life story to a band of strangers in a small pub on the Kilburn High Road. Wearing fake gold chains, dressed in knock-off designer clothes, and speaking in a mixture of London slang and patois, Alvita recalls her five marriages in outrageous, bawdy detail, rewrites her mistakes as triumphs, and shares her beliefs on femininity, sexuality, and misogyny with anyone willing to listen.
 
A thoughtful reimagining of an unforgettable narrative of female sexual power, written with singular verve and wit, The Wife of Willesden shows why Zadie Smith is one of the sharpest and most versatile writers working today.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, and Swing Time, as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia, three collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free, and Intimations, and a short story collection, Grand Union. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002, and was listed as one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and again in 2013. White Teeth won multiple literary awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. On Beauty was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and NW was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Zadie Smith is currently a tenured professor of fiction at New York University and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

We are inside the Colin Campbell, a small pub on the Kilburn High Road. The sun is setting on the celebrations of the announcement: Brent is to be the Borough of Culture for 2020. People are pouring into the pub for refreshment and rest. A large banner above the bar reads: 'The Kilburn High Road Pub Crawl'. Another sign reads: 'BRENT BOROUGH OF CULTURE: 2020'.

The Campbell is a quiet pub, usually occupied by a few all-day lone drinkers, but today these old men in their wrinkled suits are suddenly inundated by a colourful crowd. There's been dancing; some people are in carnival-like costume; there are people in their national dress, families, teenagers, lovers. Every possible kind of person. The bar staff struggle to serve the influx of people and seat them all, but after a bit of a kerfuffle, most have a table, and now begin opening packets of crisps, or their own tubs of home-made food ...

There is, in one corner, a little makeshift stage, with a home-made sign hanging behind: 'Celebrating Local Stories'. A red-headed young man with his back to the audience has a video camera on a stand, ready to film whoever comes up to talk - but people seem reluctant. Music is playing, footie is on the TV, we can't hear the people, but we see lots of little local dramas and conversations playing out, and may notice one especially striking woman, ALVITA, WIFE OF WILLESDEN. She's settling seating arguments, she's handing over pints to people who can't reach the bar, laughing and joking with everyone ...

In one corner, the AUTHOR sits, quieter than the rest, with a laptop on her table.

AUTHOR

It was the summer of 2019.

I was back home, checking the local scene

And the whole neighbourhood was in the streets

To celebrate the recent local feat:

Winning the London Borough of Culture.

Call it a pilgrimage: all together

We crawled down Kilburn High Road, until we

Reached the Colin Campbell. We drank. Polly

Bailey, who runs it, suggested a

WHOLE CAST

LOCK-IN!

PUBLICAN POLLY

Let's get our drink on with the whole block.

And, wait, listen: here's what we're gonna do:

From right now till ... let's say ... half past two

We'll have a little contest. Your stories

On that stage. I'll be the judge and MC.

And when everyone's told their tale, the best

One will receive a full English Breakfast

Tomorrow morning, on the house. With chips.

All cheer.

AUTHOR

Everyone got on their open-mic tip ...

We had all types of people in that night,

Young and old, rich and poor, black, brown and white -

But local: students, merchants, a bailiff,

People from church, temple, mosque, shul. And if

There's a person in Brent who doesn't think

Their own life story isn't just the thing

To turn into a four-hundred-page book

I'd like to meet them. So off they went. Look

At them.

We see people encouraging each other up to tell short stories from their life, and the reaction of the crowds.

    All telling their stories. Mostly

Men. Not because they had better stories

But because they had no doubt that we should

Hear them. The night wore on. I wondered: Would

A woman speak? And one or two did. But

Like the men - like most of us - they said what

They thought others wanted to hear. Or lied,

Or humble-bragged, or said the nice, polite

ClichŽd things that nice people like to say ...

We see a man and woman on the stage together and we hear the following snippet.

FEMALE SPEAKER

He's just 'the one' - we get married in May.

He's like my rock? Wouldn't you say so, Steven?

MALE SPEAKER

Yeah: everything happens for a reason

And we're just meant to be! Our stars aligned.

FEMALE SPEAKER

It's Fate! (Our gift registry's online.)

AUTHOR

Some said 'brave' things that took no bravery

To say, or were dull, or didn't move me -

Or spoke about their 'journeys' with an air

Of triumph. I was starting to despair ...

Then I saw Alvita. That is: the Wife

Of Willesden. And the story of her life's

Worth hearing.

RYAN

Tho' she's a bit deaf herself

In one ear ... but otherwise in good health.

WINSTON

And skilful! Makes her own clothes, every stitch.

That's not Armani - that's Alvita!

ASMA

           Rich

She is not. But she never passed a Big

Issue vendor without chucking a quid

Their way.

WINSTON

Cuss you if you don't.

ZAIRE

           Fake gold chains

Are her jewellery of choice. She drips like rain.

DARREN

Her underwear is dramatic - and red.

Like the soles of her knock-off 'Choos'. It's said

She looks bold. She gives side-eye perfectly.

ZAIRE

   She's been that bitch since 1983.

RYAN

And yeah, she's been hitched five times to five men.

WINSTON

(Without counting back-in-the-day bredrin.)

ASMA

But we don't need to get into that now.

She's a well-travelled woman. She allows

Herself adventures. Self-care is her truth.

She's been Ibiza, Corfu, Magaluf.

DARREN

She likes to wander. Hates to be tied down.

With that gap-toothed smile she strides around town

Dressed to impress.

ZAIRE

  Wears an isicholo:

A big Zulu hat. She's not Zulu, no ...

But let woman have her hat!

WINSTON

        And a skirt

That shows her shape.

DARREN

And them shoes that will hurt

You if you're in her way.

ASMA

    She's not just fierce

Though. She's sweet and wise. Cupid's dart has pierced

Her so often, she's an expert on love.

DARREN

Been there, done that. This one knows it all, bruv.

We see ALVITA being ushered towards the little stage, but she refuses it, and instead takes her rightful place, centre stage in the Colin Campbell. The pub turns black: there is a theatrical spotlight upon her. But before she speaks, the scene freezes while the AUTHOR gives her Chaucerian apologia ...

AUTHOR

But before she starts, a word to the wise:

Not a trigger warning, exactly, but

A proviso: it's not my tale. I just

Copied it down from the original.

I could make stuff up and rewrite it all

But that would surely defeat the purpose,

And if Alvita does make you nervous

It's worth remembering - though I'm sure you know -

When wives spoke thus six hundred years ago

You were all shocked then. The shock never ends

When women say things usually said by men ...

And one last thing: if you spot yourself and

Think I've made you posher or more common

Than you'd like: sorry. I've got a good ear,

But I can only write down what I hear ...

The Wife of Willesden's Prologue

ALVITA reanimates and the AUTHOR withdraws to her table. Throughout the Prologue, ALVITA regularly breaks the fourth wall, speaking to the real audience as much as the pub one. Her accent is North Weezy with moments of deliberate poshness as well as frequent lapses into Jamaican patois and cockney for comic effect. She is a world-class raconteur. She begins:

ALVITA

Let me tell you something: I do not need

Any permission or college degrees

To speak on how marriage is stress. I been

Married five damn times since I was nineteen!

From mi eye deh a mi knee. But I survived,

Thank God, and I got...

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Verlag
Penguin Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593653734
ISBN 13 
9780593653739
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
196
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Purmerul LTD
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