Swing Time is a novel by British writer Zadie Smith, released in November 2016. The story takes place in London, New York and West Africa, and focuses on two girls who can tap dance.
The novel references numerous Hollywood musicals as the unnamed narrator is obsessed with them as a child. It takes its title from the 1936 George Stevens movie Swing Time starring Fred Astaire and specifically references the "Bojangles of Harlem sequence" in which Astaire sports blackface. Jeni Le Gon becomes an icon for the narrator and Tracey after they see her dancing in Ali Baba Goes to Town.
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