In 'Swing Time', dancers face the music

Zadie Smith's novel Swing Time takes its name from the famous dance movie featuring Ginger Rogers (left) and Fred Astaire.

“I ignored the ridiculous plots of these movies,” confides the never-named, first-person narrator of Swing Time, Zadie Smith’s fifth novel. “To me they were only roads leading to the dance.”

The narrator could be describing the 1936 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie, also titled Swing Time, which features some of the best dancing – and one of the dumbest plots – found in any of their movies.