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A review by casskrug
There but for the by Ali Smith
3.0
hmmm unfortunately i’m having a tough time figuring out if i enjoyed this book or not. the positive here for me was that smith’s writing style is delightful. the way she plays with language here is begging to be read aloud, so that you can fully grasp the double meanings of her puns - the same quality pulled me into her work at the beginning of 2022 when i read autumn for the first time. this quote from the last section of the novel perfectly encapsulates how i feel about smith’s wordplay:
“Brooke looked up from her piece of paper and watched them throwing the words for birds and flowers and Hollywood actors at each other like they were throwing little rocks wrapped as presents.”
i think the stumbling block for me is with the specific stories she tells and the overarching themes within them. often while reading this book, i felt like there was something just beyond my grasp, like there were dots i should’ve been connecting but was not. i believe we have a lot of the same viewpoints on the political and social themes that tend to pop up in her work, but they’re usually couched in undercurrents of british politics and humor that don’t fully resonate with me, personally, as a reader. i enjoyed the different personalities of the main narrators and the connections she weaved between them, but got lost within the larger cast of characters that this book has. i didn’t feel particularly compelled to find out what happened next because i wasn’t particularly attached to the characters or the storyline of miles locking himself in the lee’s spare bedroom during their dinner party.
ali smith is obviously a very talented writer but i’m not sure if she’s the writer for me, or maybe i’m just not the reader for her.
“Brooke looked up from her piece of paper and watched them throwing the words for birds and flowers and Hollywood actors at each other like they were throwing little rocks wrapped as presents.”
i think the stumbling block for me is with the specific stories she tells and the overarching themes within them. often while reading this book, i felt like there was something just beyond my grasp, like there were dots i should’ve been connecting but was not. i believe we have a lot of the same viewpoints on the political and social themes that tend to pop up in her work, but they’re usually couched in undercurrents of british politics and humor that don’t fully resonate with me, personally, as a reader. i enjoyed the different personalities of the main narrators and the connections she weaved between them, but got lost within the larger cast of characters that this book has. i didn’t feel particularly compelled to find out what happened next because i wasn’t particularly attached to the characters or the storyline of miles locking himself in the lee’s spare bedroom during their dinner party.
ali smith is obviously a very talented writer but i’m not sure if she’s the writer for me, or maybe i’m just not the reader for her.