Of the many subjects in Zadie Smith's second novel--Buddhism, Jewish mysticism, the Hollywood studio system--one that she presumably did not have to research was the bug-light allure of celebrity. In 2000, at age 24, she became deservedly famous for White Teeth, a sprawling, erudite comedy about culture clash and bioengineering in postcolonial Britain. Brilliant, young and beautiful, she became a favorite of the British media, which followed her love life and hairstyle changes with a fervor Americans reserve for cast members of Friends.
The hunger to get a piece of the famous and the psychology behind that desire are the...