Summary

In “The Lazy River” by Zadie Smith, the narrator is in Spain in the lazy river pool at a hotel (a lazy river is a shallow pool with a slow current that allows users to drift along). She describes the currents of the pool as a metaphor for life and the passing of time, as everyone is floating around in a circle. The narrator talks about how some people let themselves be carried away by the current while others try to swim against it but ultimately fail.

All the guests at the hotel are British and they spend most of their time in the pool. They feel free because there are no other foreign guests to judge them. Since they are on holiday, the guests try to avoid thinking about problems to the point where they become oblivious of their surroundings. They worry that due to Brexit, which they agreed to, they will not be able to come to Spain so easily in the future, but they...