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The Whole Story and Other Stories
by
Ali Smith
From the critically acclaimed author of Hotel World comes a collection of uniquely inventive stories that thread the labyrinth of coincidence, chance, and connections missed and made.
What happens when you run into Death in a busy train station? (You know he’s Death because when he smiles, your cell phone goes dead.) What if your lover falls in love with a tree? Should you ...more
What happens when you run into Death in a busy train station? (You know he’s Death because when he smiles, your cell phone goes dead.) What if your lover falls in love with a tree? Should you ...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
December 18th 2007
by Anchor
(first published January 24th 2003)
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I love Ali Smith. I enjoy her novels, but it's with her charming and quirky (oh god, I hate that word but it seems so apt!) modern short stories where she really excels. They are stories about life - of course they are about life - but an odd, dislocated, disconcerting life. Peculiar lives being lived in peculiar ways, its true, but also incredibly ordinary people living these lives.
From the story of a man searching for hundreds of copies of The Great Gatsby (which, oddly, I had rea...more
From the story of a man searching for hundreds of copies of The Great Gatsby (which, oddly, I had rea...more
The Universal Story
I loved the use of repetition and elaboration on the same story in this one. I loved the descriptions of the books, particularly the one about the Great Gatsby from 1974 what was yellow but is now more white and the picture sepia. I felt that was just, for some reason, stunning. I loved how the books were used as a boat. I loved the little intricacies that normally you wouldn't get. 4/5
Gothic
I really enjoyed the subtle, warped humour of this one. How ev...more
I loved the use of repetition and elaboration on the same story in this one. I loved the descriptions of the books, particularly the one about the Great Gatsby from 1974 what was yellow but is now more white and the picture sepia. I felt that was just, for some reason, stunning. I loved how the books were used as a boat. I loved the little intricacies that normally you wouldn't get. 4/5
Gothic
I really enjoyed the subtle, warped humour of this one. How ev...more
I rarely read short stories, but reviews of Ali Smith were interesting, so I proceeded accordingly. Her writing is delightful and novel. One could best describe her style as "stream of consciousness". As I read, I could not resist the thoughts of a Mother Goose rhyme, "This is the House That Jack built..." It is known that these ditties are actually varieties of cultural contexts. This particular cumulative tale, which is not really about Jack, describes how the house has ind...more
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It’s official. I am not as smitten with Ali Smith the story writer as I am with Ali Smith the novelist. Isn’t that usually the case? It’s either one or the other with writers. Could Barthelme write a decent novel to save himself? Nah. (Don't link me to The King. Puh-leaze). Could Barth write a short story to save either himself or Mrs Barth? Nah. What about Martin Amis’s short pieces? Oh please! So it goes. There are stories in here I adored, most notably ‘The Universal Story’ which toggles narr...more
I love Ali Smith. Hotel World is my favorite, but this novel is quite different. Smith ends the novel with plaguing questions. At this point, the reader has figured out that all of the stories told are intertwined, yet the ending is all too vague. I have a love/hate relationship with writers who like to leave loose ends when everything is expected to be definite. The mystery remains unsolved in a world that is so IMPATIENT. Maybe Ali Smith is trying to teach the lesson of patience or... That you...more
My wife and I grabbed this one earlier in the summer at the library sale in Louisville. I had read Hotel World a million years ago after buying it at the Strand and recalled its haunting, inchoate characters. Memories of that appear rather reinforced by some observations in London a year or so later.
I read the first two stories around the time of its purchase and found both intriguing. The third story, the protagonist sees Death at the train staion, I felt glib and stopped there. I...more
I read the first two stories around the time of its purchase and found both intriguing. The third story, the protagonist sees Death at the train staion, I felt glib and stopped there. I...more
This collection of stories has a flop or two. Some less than interesting tales. But the ones I love are made for photocopying and mailing to your ideal lover with pressed flowers and a photo of that feather you found in a graveyard.
These were pretty creative but they lacked any sense of urgency.
A sharp literary mind and exquisite technique, Smith executes this short story collection with fervor and interest. In my first reading, I have discovered the tremulous strings that attach relationships and how even the bizarre can open a person's eyes to a reality so good and pure that it has to be embraced.
On the whole, The Whole Story and Other Stories is a book I enjoyed, but I had to think very hard through it. I can quickly see it becoming a favorite, but it is definitely not a boo...more
On the whole, The Whole Story and Other Stories is a book I enjoyed, but I had to think very hard through it. I can quickly see it becoming a favorite, but it is definitely not a boo...more
Having just finished reading this book in Washington Square Park while witnessing someone being arrested, I subsequently tried to explain Ali Smith's style to a friend: "Her stories and characters are kind of crazy, but crazy in a way that makes complete and total sense, or would if you were not aware of the existing infrastructure of the universe and human relations."
Not sure how successful I was in making my point, but I love reading about people being chased by a bagpipe...more
Not sure how successful I was in making my point, but I love reading about people being chased by a bagpipe...more
great stories, masterful writer. she handles her words and sentences like a soccer player handles the sphere or a lover handles your heart. masterful. and the scottish melancholy is an added bonus.
There were two stories in here (the one with the tree and the one with "The Great Gatsby") that I loved. The rest of it I could take or leave but she has a great writing style.
unnarrator
marked it as to-read
Because of this:
http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/pages/j...
And this:
http://www.pulp.net/54/top10.html
http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/pages/j...
And this:
http://www.pulp.net/54/top10.html
Wonderful! Astounding story telling: poignant, imaginative, clever, funny. Everyone should read this, & read everything she has written.
I'm turning into an Ali Smith junkie... am ordering everything I can get my hands on. Wonderful writing.
Some of the stories in here are amazing. "being quick" makes me cry every time I read it. I gave this book four stars and not five, though, because not all of the stories are that great. I guess that's a little unfair, because if a novel had moved me as much as some of the stories in here, I wouldn't have thought twice about giving it five stars. But short story collections demand that you read, engage, disengage and go on to the next, so it's only fair to give each story more or less ...more
gue masih baca buku ini sih sebenernya. belom abis-abis. ampir setaun padahal.
tapiii... buku ini sangat detail. sangat. bahkan ada di suatu bab dimana dia nerangin lalet yang di nemplok di buku yang di jual di empire.. dengan cara yang mungkin lo pikir 'penting banget ya?' tapi bukannya malah jadi ga penting malah jadi keren. dan Ali Smith menulis dengan cara yang unik. gue awalnya ga ngerti tapi lama-lama juga 'parah!kreatif banget!'
tapiii... buku ini sangat detail. sangat. bahkan ada di suatu bab dimana dia nerangin lalet yang di nemplok di buku yang di jual di empire.. dengan cara yang mungkin lo pikir 'penting banget ya?' tapi bukannya malah jadi ga penting malah jadi keren. dan Ali Smith menulis dengan cara yang unik. gue awalnya ga ngerti tapi lama-lama juga 'parah!kreatif banget!'
Less impressed with these than i was with her novels. Though it's very hard for me to make it through an entire short story collection without getting bored. ironically. there are some gems in here though, especially the first one.
I liked most of the short stories in this book. I didn't like them as much as I liked "Like", which was the first of her books I read, but I liked it more than Hotel World, which I think received more acclaim. The stories that speak to me the most are the ones that are about relationships between people, where the narrator changes midway through and we suddenly see things from someone else's perspective.
This is one of the few books I leave out to re-read periodically. Something about this book really radiates with me.
Breezy, charming, whimsical, like late brunch in Portland. I bought it at an airport bookstore and lend it out sometimes to people who just want a book that is nice, like guests who have forgotten to bring one but want to sit out in the grass on a sunny afternoon and read.
recommended by jeanette winterson. i had to check it out.
these stories are magical so far. i am getting so sucked in.
my favorite so far is a story about a woman who falls in love with a tree.
these stories are magical so far. i am getting so sucked in.
my favorite so far is a story about a woman who falls in love with a tree.
I am crazy about Ali Smith's stories. Her prose is quiet, but never restrained. What is it about UK writers? Damn it they just make my day and I'm hardly an anglophile.
I read the first three stories and found them to be patchy and ordinary, and too self-conscious. So I abandoned it. I will read 'Hotel World', though.
This is a beautiful collection of short stories.
Smith has established herself as a thoughtful and worthwhile contemporary author.
Smith has established herself as a thoughtful and worthwhile contemporary author.
I found this collection better than her other one (hotel world) but still not great, I consider myself an expert in short stories.
great book of short stories, she's one gifted lady. because i like 'em short and sweet, this was perfect.
Read the first four stories, and they didn't do anything for me. Did not finish.
These beguiling stories hint at the later greatness of The Accidental...
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Ali Smith is a writer, born in 1962 in Inverness, Scotland, to working-class parents. She was raised in a council house in Inverness and now lives in Cambridge. She studied at Aberdeen, and then at Cambridge, for a Ph.D. that was never finished. In a 2004 interview with writing magazine Mslexia, she talked briefly about the difficulty of becoming ill with chronic fatigue syndrome for a year and ho...more
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