Ali Smith - How To Be Both

Rating: 4/5    

Review:
A bit mixed but very good overall

Books which are written in an unconventional, experimental way are usually either brilliant or a load of unreadable nonsense. Frankly, I thought this had bits of both, but there was far more brilliance here. I enjoyed it a lot overall and there are some parts which will stay with me for a long time, I think.

As is well documented, the book's two halves are very different and it is a deliberate matter of chance which appears first in your edition. Mine began with the spirit of a female Renaissance artist slowly (and initially incomprehensibly) emerging into consciousness in the 21st Century and being somehow linked to a young woman who is looking at one of her paintings in a gallery, with the second half being the story of George, the young woman in question. The link emerges slowly and the stories themselves overlap only slightly, but they inform each other a great deal. It's a good idea, generally well done.

This is a book about a lot of things, including justice and feminism, friendship and really looking at what we see and how subjective our interpretation of it can be both in art and in the real world. Also, in George's story, there is a beautiful study of grief and bereavement with some genuinely moving moments. There is a finely evoked sense of the seemingly unending desolation of grief, and glimpses of the beginnings of healing with no nonsense about "closure." I thought this section was very good, and quite brilliant in parts.

I found Francesco the painter's section less successful, with a feeling that it got a little tricksy and self-regarding at times, especially early on, but it kept me reading, sometimes longer than I ought to have, which is always a good sign.

I'm not sure this is quite the wondrous masterpiece some have made it out to be, and I can understand why quite a lot of people absolutely hate it, but I enjoyed a lot of it and got a great deal out of it. I'm still there with the characters some of the time, and thinking about what the book has said to me so My advice is to give it a go, and persevere especially if you begin with Francesco. There's a lot of rewarding stuff here and I can recommend it.