She is the kind of character that sticks with you long after you've turned the last page. This conversation about truthfulness permeates the entire narrative. In the story - and this is very much a novel about novels - Ainsworth works on and then finishes "a novel 'set partially in Jamaica', an island upon which he had never set foot." The novel opens the discussion about what Jamaica is and what those on the outside imagine Jamaica to be. The narrative juggles serious topics and offers a scathing look at the realities of the relationship between England and Jamaica.
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However, Smith's knack for developing full secondary characters and her talent for descriptions and witty dialogue make some parts of this novel as entertaining as the wildest fiction. The Fraud is a work of historical fiction and is thus filled with real events and characters. The Tichborne case, in which an Australian butcher claimed he was the heir to a big estate, was one of the longest cases heard in an English court, and it became a bit of an obsession for many in England, including Eliza. Andrew finds himself in London as the star witness of an important case, and he understands that a lot depends on how truthfully and accurately he can tell his story. Meanwhile, Andrew Bogle, a man who grew up enslaved on a Jamaican plantation, also has very strong opinions about things like slavery, prejudice, and justice. Eliza pretends to enjoy William's work, but she has a harder time staying quiet about other things they disagree on, like politics, injustice, and colonialism. Unfortunately, Ainsworth isn't a very good writer, and Eliza knows it.
Ainsworth, who is also Eliza's cousin by marriage, likes Eliza and is doggedly working on his writing in order to recoup the modicum of recognition he once enjoyed, and which he now regularly aggrandizes in his retellings. Eliza Touchet, a smart Scottish woman with a plethora of interests, has been working as a housekeeper for William Ainsworth, a writer whose career seems to be stuck on a downward spiral, for three decades. Zadie Smith's The Fraud is a lot of things: a meticulously researched work of historical fiction, a smart narrative about the importance of truth and the shortcomings of perspective, and a tale that delves deeply into authenticity and justice.
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