What are the factors that imprison our thinking? And how can we unshackle ourselves? Is there a price to freedom? These are some of the questions that we are prompted to ponder throughout Zadie Smith's engrossing second essay collection. As she writes in the foreword: "My hope is for a reader who, like the author, often wonders how free she really is."
Reading this collection, we wonder about freedom not only for the body but also the mind, not only for the individual but also society.
The author of White Teeth and On Beauty proves herself to be an astute essayist. If freedom is an overarching concern, the essays – several previously published in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books – also cover an eclectic array of other topics, from Brexit to Beyoncé. Her trademark wit and wisdom is apparent whether exploring politics or pop.
Two powerful questions resound: the elegiac what have we done, and the practical what can we do?
This is a collection reverberating with questions. "Are some of the largest decisions of British political life really being made at the private dinner tables of a tiny elite?", she asks in "North-West London Blues", examining the role the state has played in her life, increasing privatisation and the loss of libraries. This exploration of forfeiture also haunts "Elegy for a Country's Seasons", in which she writes of "the intimate loss of the things we love", in this case caused by climate change.
Two powerful questions resound: the elegiac what have we done, and the practical what can we do? Indeed, her interest in action versus apathy, hope versus despair, shines through in "On Optimism and Despair". Time is a recurring obsession of hers, and this is a collection that looks back on the past, considers the present and also draws a question from contemplating the future: "What shall I tell her?", she asks about her hypothetical seven-year old granddaughter.
The nature of identity in the modern world and how it is shaped by factors as various as race, class, the internet, and language is a recurring theme in her fiction, and is also grappled with here. How is identity constructed and dismantled? What is the difference between a personality and a persona?
She is fascinating exploring the notion of fame in novels including The Autograph Man and Swing Time, and in her entertaining essay "Meet Justin Bieber!" she imagines a meeting between the American pop star and a philosopher named Buber, and ponders the nature of meaningful human interaction.
Her own identity as a writer is put under the microscope in "The I Who Is Not Me", in which she tussles with that age-old chestnut about the extent to which fiction is autobiographical.
Read more: Zadie Smith's Swing Time is a dance to the rhythms of womanhood
The craft of writing itself was also excellently explored in her previous collection, in which she memorably discussed structure and the difference between writers who are "Macro Planners" and "Micro Managers". It's a concern she continues in the energetic "Dance Lessons for Writers" making the connection between writing and dancing and detailing some of the dancers who have inspired her.
Indeed, some of the best essays are those in which she passionately explores the art, music and books – from Billie Holiday to The Buddha of Suburbia – that have played a role in her life and her literature.
To end with a question from the reviewer: should you read this brilliant book? Answer: absolutely.
Feel Free by Zadie Smith is published by Hamish Hamilton on 1 February (£14.99)
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