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The First Person and Other Stories
The First Person and other stories effortlessly appeals to our hearts, heads and funny bones. Always intellectually playful, but also very moving and funny, Smith explores the ways and whys of storytelling.
207 pages, Hardcover
First published January 2, 2008
47 people are currently reading
2016 people want to read
About the author
Ali Smith
151 books5,362 followersAli Smith is a writer, born 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 how it forced her to give up her job as a lecturer at University of Strathclyde to focus on what she really wanted to do: writing. She has been with her partner Sarah Wood for 17 years and dedicates all her books to her.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 267 reviews
August 5, 2020
I bought this because I had loved the second story, The Child, which is a straightforward single narrative, with humour and a dark fairytale/magical-realist angle.
Stories 1, 3, and 4 were similar to each other, but utterly unlike that: they play with ways of telling, mixing, and reworking stories, but not in a coherent or enjoyable way. The rest of them continued the theme, with variable results. Overall, disappointing.
Image: Shuffling a deck (Source.)
True Short Story, 2*
This would be OK as a preface, exploring the nature of short stories, but set up as a short story itself, it fails.
The narrator, Ali, hears two men in a café debating the relative merits of novels and short stories and she phones a friend to discuss the topic - while the men can hear. The friend has cancer, so there are a couple of pages about drug pricing and availability on the NHS. Mention of Echo and Narcissus prompts a series of “The short story is like a nymph because…” gags, followed by a string of quotes from 13 authors about short stories, all tied up with a short story being like a nymph “when the echo of it answers back”.
The Child, 5*
A brilliant story about lost and found that is amusing, but also increasingly, unsettlingly dark, in unexpected ways.
See my review HERE.
Image: Cherubic child, by Mabel Lucie Attwell
Present, 2*
“The woman came through from the kitchen and put down in front of me, like a firm promise that I would definitely be fed, condiments, and a knife and fork.”
Christmas is coming and a man, a barmaid, and the narrator are the only people in the pub. None of them know each other. The man is keen to talk; the barmaid doesn’t want to be chatted up but is happy to gossip about locals; and the narrator just wants to be left alone while she waits for the food she ordered half an hour ago. Instead of having a conversation, she imagines what they might have said.
The Third Person, 2*
The opening paragraph, in its entirety, is:
“All short stories long.”
Then it becomes more conventional: it's autumn, and a couple who’ve been dating since summer “have just gone to bed together for the first time… with a sense of unavoidability”. This is promising. Then, in the middle of a paragraph about that, it’s suddenly spring and an old lady hits a dustman on the head with a spade, drawing blood, via a crazily convoluted sentence. A page later, we’re on a Greek island, with different people.
And so it continues. A stream of apparently unrelated mini stories, switching mid paragraph, indicated by a change of season. The loosely common feature is that of the title - but in a literal, rather than grammatical sense.
Fidelio and Bess, 4*
At last: one that plays with the recurring idea of blending stories, but in a way that’s coherent and engaging! It’s a mashup of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Beethoven’s Fidelio, imagined by a woman addressing her female lover.
It argues that culture need not be fixed; Beethoven revised Fidelio several times, in the early part, “everybody is misunderstanding everybody else and believing different versions of things”, and at the end, “everything in Fidelio is left unresolved”.
“Sometimes a marriage needs three hearts beating as one.”
It uses Fidelio to make a case for infidelity.
“Now we were actually a kind of married… our marriedness was probably making your real relationship more palatable.”
The History of History, 2*
A teen comes home after school, with homework that includes writing a report of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in the style of a newspaper report. Against the backdrop of her mother having some sort of mental breakdown in the hallway, she writes her version of MQoS death, tabloid-style.
No Exit, 2*
At the cinema, a woman goes through the “Exit” that the narrator knows is a dead end. But is it? She and the ex she mentions it to, can’t agree on their memories.
The Second Person, 3*
Angry accusations of annoying and irrational behaviour, addressed to “you”. Then each partner imagines bizarre scenarios that illustrate what they dislike about the other.
“It doesn’t make me a fiction you can play with.”
Eavesdropping on a couple’s argument is rarely enlightening or entertaining for long, let alone ennobling. The redeeming feature is a decent punchline. It is the negative counterpoint of the final story, The First Person.
I Know Something You Don't Know, 2*
“Complimentary Therapies was between Compensation Claims and Composts, Peats, and Mulches.”
Not a first-person narrator. A boy has been bedbound for four months with what sounds like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Doctors haven’t helped, so the mother turns to alternative therapies, plucking two from the Yellow Pages. They’re very different in their approach, and there’s one revealing bit of dialogue, but the story itself reveals nothing:
“Is he a headstrong kind of a boy?
Well, no, the boy’s mother said.
Yes, that’s right, Karen Pretty said.”
Writ, 4*
What would you tell your younger self? It’s a staple of celebrity interviews, and it’s a question that arises in time travel stories. This is neither. But for some reason, a woman in her early 40s finds her 14-year old self in her kitchen. She wants to impress her younger self (she bought a house) and reassure her (no need to hide your cleverness). But the girl is a typical moody teen:
“She makes insolence a thing of beauty.”
Should she tell herself about specific people and events to nurture or avoid? Instead, they argue about school and the words on Keats’ gravestone. The teen insists “writ” is not a word. Oddly, it doesn’t mention Keats’ request that his gravestone bear no name.
Image: Keats’ gravestone: "Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water." (Source.)
Astute Fiery Luxurious, 3*
This has a slight Brothers Grimm feel, like The Child, but the story itself is oddly muddled. A mysterious parcel is delivered to a couple:
“It looked like it should have been heavier than it was, but when I had it in my hands it felt unnaturally light.”
The address and postcode are correct, but the name is someone they’ve never heard of, and the handwriting is crazy. The contents are horrible and puzzling… A promising premise. Then there’s a lot of reminiscence about the 1980s, and a memory of a friend who enjoyed shooting squirrels and whose younger sister made “future cards”, with a single word on each. One of the squirrels is a kind of Schroedinger’s squirrel. Then back to a series of attempts to get rid of the parcel. Odd.
The First Person, 5*
“You’re not the first person to”... whatever with me, “but you’re the one right now”.
This is a lovely, positive counterpoint of the earlier story, The Second Person. A middle-aged couple, newly together, are wary of the whole meet-the-parents thing and meeting each other’s “lifetime haul of dearest friends”. They decide to invent a how-we-met story, taking turns to come up with more amusing and increasingly surreal ideas. Then they toy with “A story with no story. No adjectives. No beginning or middle or end. Ultimate freedom.”
Quotes
• “That practised diffidence… the cloudy anger that there almost always is between fathers and sons.”
• “A woman living in a street of terraced houses, a street on which so many cars are parked that it makes driving the fortnightly refuse-collector truck down it quite difficult, has just hit one of the dustmen who routinely empty the wheelie bins every second Tuesday morning over the head with a garden spade.”
• “I closed my eyes into the kiss. I love your kiss. Everything’s sorted, and obviously, and understood, and civilised, your kiss says.”
• “You stand behind my chair and put your arms round me… You hold me very tight under my clothes, and if there’s a library anywhere near then someone just removed its roof, the shelves just flooded with sun and all the old books just remembered what it means to be bound in skin and to have a spine.”
• “I can feel the silent laugh of you all the way up and down my back.”
Stories 1, 3, and 4 were similar to each other, but utterly unlike that: they play with ways of telling, mixing, and reworking stories, but not in a coherent or enjoyable way. The rest of them continued the theme, with variable results. Overall, disappointing.
Image: Shuffling a deck (Source.)
True Short Story, 2*
This would be OK as a preface, exploring the nature of short stories, but set up as a short story itself, it fails.
The narrator, Ali, hears two men in a café debating the relative merits of novels and short stories and she phones a friend to discuss the topic - while the men can hear. The friend has cancer, so there are a couple of pages about drug pricing and availability on the NHS. Mention of Echo and Narcissus prompts a series of “The short story is like a nymph because…” gags, followed by a string of quotes from 13 authors about short stories, all tied up with a short story being like a nymph “when the echo of it answers back”.
The Child, 5*
A brilliant story about lost and found that is amusing, but also increasingly, unsettlingly dark, in unexpected ways.
See my review HERE.
Image: Cherubic child, by Mabel Lucie Attwell
Present, 2*
“The woman came through from the kitchen and put down in front of me, like a firm promise that I would definitely be fed, condiments, and a knife and fork.”
Christmas is coming and a man, a barmaid, and the narrator are the only people in the pub. None of them know each other. The man is keen to talk; the barmaid doesn’t want to be chatted up but is happy to gossip about locals; and the narrator just wants to be left alone while she waits for the food she ordered half an hour ago. Instead of having a conversation, she imagines what they might have said.
The Third Person, 2*
The opening paragraph, in its entirety, is:
“All short stories long.”
Then it becomes more conventional: it's autumn, and a couple who’ve been dating since summer “have just gone to bed together for the first time… with a sense of unavoidability”. This is promising. Then, in the middle of a paragraph about that, it’s suddenly spring and an old lady hits a dustman on the head with a spade, drawing blood, via a crazily convoluted sentence. A page later, we’re on a Greek island, with different people.
And so it continues. A stream of apparently unrelated mini stories, switching mid paragraph, indicated by a change of season. The loosely common feature is that of the title - but in a literal, rather than grammatical sense.
Fidelio and Bess, 4*
At last: one that plays with the recurring idea of blending stories, but in a way that’s coherent and engaging! It’s a mashup of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Beethoven’s Fidelio, imagined by a woman addressing her female lover.
It argues that culture need not be fixed; Beethoven revised Fidelio several times, in the early part, “everybody is misunderstanding everybody else and believing different versions of things”, and at the end, “everything in Fidelio is left unresolved”.
“Sometimes a marriage needs three hearts beating as one.”
It uses Fidelio to make a case for infidelity.
“Now we were actually a kind of married… our marriedness was probably making your real relationship more palatable.”
The History of History, 2*
A teen comes home after school, with homework that includes writing a report of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in the style of a newspaper report. Against the backdrop of her mother having some sort of mental breakdown in the hallway, she writes her version of MQoS death, tabloid-style.
No Exit, 2*
At the cinema, a woman goes through the “Exit” that the narrator knows is a dead end. But is it? She and the ex she mentions it to, can’t agree on their memories.
The Second Person, 3*
Angry accusations of annoying and irrational behaviour, addressed to “you”. Then each partner imagines bizarre scenarios that illustrate what they dislike about the other.
“It doesn’t make me a fiction you can play with.”
Eavesdropping on a couple’s argument is rarely enlightening or entertaining for long, let alone ennobling. The redeeming feature is a decent punchline. It is the negative counterpoint of the final story, The First Person.
I Know Something You Don't Know, 2*
“Complimentary Therapies was between Compensation Claims and Composts, Peats, and Mulches.”
Not a first-person narrator. A boy has been bedbound for four months with what sounds like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Doctors haven’t helped, so the mother turns to alternative therapies, plucking two from the Yellow Pages. They’re very different in their approach, and there’s one revealing bit of dialogue, but the story itself reveals nothing:
“Is he a headstrong kind of a boy?
Well, no, the boy’s mother said.
Yes, that’s right, Karen Pretty said.”
Writ, 4*
What would you tell your younger self? It’s a staple of celebrity interviews, and it’s a question that arises in time travel stories. This is neither. But for some reason, a woman in her early 40s finds her 14-year old self in her kitchen. She wants to impress her younger self (she bought a house) and reassure her (no need to hide your cleverness). But the girl is a typical moody teen:
“She makes insolence a thing of beauty.”
Should she tell herself about specific people and events to nurture or avoid? Instead, they argue about school and the words on Keats’ gravestone. The teen insists “writ” is not a word. Oddly, it doesn’t mention Keats’ request that his gravestone bear no name.
Image: Keats’ gravestone: "Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water." (Source.)
Astute Fiery Luxurious, 3*
This has a slight Brothers Grimm feel, like The Child, but the story itself is oddly muddled. A mysterious parcel is delivered to a couple:
“It looked like it should have been heavier than it was, but when I had it in my hands it felt unnaturally light.”
The address and postcode are correct, but the name is someone they’ve never heard of, and the handwriting is crazy. The contents are horrible and puzzling… A promising premise. Then there’s a lot of reminiscence about the 1980s, and a memory of a friend who enjoyed shooting squirrels and whose younger sister made “future cards”, with a single word on each. One of the squirrels is a kind of Schroedinger’s squirrel. Then back to a series of attempts to get rid of the parcel. Odd.
The First Person, 5*
“You’re not the first person to”... whatever with me, “but you’re the one right now”.
This is a lovely, positive counterpoint of the earlier story, The Second Person. A middle-aged couple, newly together, are wary of the whole meet-the-parents thing and meeting each other’s “lifetime haul of dearest friends”. They decide to invent a how-we-met story, taking turns to come up with more amusing and increasingly surreal ideas. Then they toy with “A story with no story. No adjectives. No beginning or middle or end. Ultimate freedom.”
Quotes
• “That practised diffidence… the cloudy anger that there almost always is between fathers and sons.”
• “A woman living in a street of terraced houses, a street on which so many cars are parked that it makes driving the fortnightly refuse-collector truck down it quite difficult, has just hit one of the dustmen who routinely empty the wheelie bins every second Tuesday morning over the head with a garden spade.”
• “I closed my eyes into the kiss. I love your kiss. Everything’s sorted, and obviously, and understood, and civilised, your kiss says.”
• “You stand behind my chair and put your arms round me… You hold me very tight under my clothes, and if there’s a library anywhere near then someone just removed its roof, the shelves just flooded with sun and all the old books just remembered what it means to be bound in skin and to have a spine.”
• “I can feel the silent laugh of you all the way up and down my back.”
April 4, 2018
Oh my God, I haven’t written a review in here for so long that I’ve almost forgotten how to go about it. But I’ve just read this collection of short stories by Ali Smith that I absolutely must enthuse briefly about!
It is my first encounter with Ms. Smith, and I rushed out and bought another collection by her immediately aften finishing this (being in London over Easter, an English bookstore was at hand. An aside: oh, why did I have to go back home?!)
However, I actually began rereading this first because it struck me that I had so enjoyed myself the first time round (much as my first trip to London years ago), rushing through and not stopping to dwell on details. Hence the rereading. (And hence a zillion more trips to London).
So now I’m stopping and gawking and wondering what on Earth she’s about much of the time, and I have to remind myself to notice the details. Because Ali Smith is just such good company that again I’m tempted to shoot through it, and for some (now unfathomable) reason I had assumed she was difficult, too post-post-modern for me. Turns out she is not.
Not all the stories are brilliant, to me. But they’re all unique, original takes on the genre. Some are downright weird, some are really good, and a few are oh, just so damn wonderful! (Especially “Writ”) I hereby pledge to read much more by Ali Smith because even when she’s not utterly amazing, she’s still so very interesting, not to say witty, knowledgeable, warm, with a nerdy wordsmithy ways with words. Ms. Smith has herself a new Danish fangirl!
It is my first encounter with Ms. Smith, and I rushed out and bought another collection by her immediately aften finishing this (being in London over Easter, an English bookstore was at hand. An aside: oh, why did I have to go back home?!)
However, I actually began rereading this first because it struck me that I had so enjoyed myself the first time round (much as my first trip to London years ago), rushing through and not stopping to dwell on details. Hence the rereading. (And hence a zillion more trips to London).
So now I’m stopping and gawking and wondering what on Earth she’s about much of the time, and I have to remind myself to notice the details. Because Ali Smith is just such good company that again I’m tempted to shoot through it, and for some (now unfathomable) reason I had assumed she was difficult, too post-post-modern for me. Turns out she is not.
Not all the stories are brilliant, to me. But they’re all unique, original takes on the genre. Some are downright weird, some are really good, and a few are oh, just so damn wonderful! (Especially “Writ”) I hereby pledge to read much more by Ali Smith because even when she’s not utterly amazing, she’s still so very interesting, not to say witty, knowledgeable, warm, with a nerdy wordsmithy ways with words. Ms. Smith has herself a new Danish fangirl!
December 6, 2024
3 stars
short review for busy readers:
11 stories about problematic/dysfunctional relationships and connections between people. Some are very short, some are confusing, all are well written and show a breath of knowledge about culture and people. On a meta level, the collection is about the short story genre itself and how it’s “like a nymph," hard to pin down any way you approach it.
in detail:
1. True short story. ★★★★ This was a lovely piece based on an experience in a cafe. Introduces the meta theme of the collection, which is the short story form itself and how it takes in the depth of one specific moment, and does not, like the novel, engage with longer processes.
2. The child ★★★ Reader fave according to reviews. Fab writing, shocking plot, but I had trouble interpreting it. Woman finds a small child in her supermarket shopping trolley. All attempts at trying to find its mother…or getting rid of it…fail.
3. Present. ★★★ well structured, subtile. Winter/Christmas themed. About a woman in a pub and the drunk bothering her because he wants to talk, or relive, Christmases of his childhood.
4. The third person. ★★★★ Fractured narrative connecting random people at random points in their lives. Seasonal changes and the weather act as the backdrop to the seasons and weather of human experience. Rather what I enjoy, although I know others don’t.
5. Fidelio and Bess ★★ Strange. Also a reader fave, but I rather disliked it. How cultural mash ups are unnecessary (mixing theatre plays), as a reflection of how mismatched, yet compatible, two women having an affair are.
6. The history of history: ★★ interesting short about a mum who cashes in her muminess. Fab writing, voice and dialogue…but ends abruptly and doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Would probs have been a 4 or 5 star if it had a direction.
7. No exit:★ confused, multi-example tale about being accidentally caught in situations with no way out or rescue. Rather vague.
8. The second person: ★★★ Fun story about two people who are more alike than they’d care to admit telling each other what they’re like. Shows off how badly we interpret other people’s words and opinions about ourselves.
9. I know something you don’t know ★★★★ Nice, if a little unsatisfactory, story about a boy who can’t get out of bed. The doctors are stumped, so his mum contacts some local hedge wizards to see if they can help…to unexpected results.
10. Writ ★★★.5 What would you say to your 14-year old self if you met them? Interesting situation but NO 14-year old is a graceful gazelle of a feminine beauty whose teen disgust and passive-aggressive behaviour is simply grand. Sorry, there’s being forgiving of yourself, and then there’s ‘parental blindness’. I don’t buy it…but pleasant story.
11. Astute fiery luxurious ★★★.5 not bad. Possible futures, possible outcomes. We have choices and what we do with those choices may change our lives completely.
12. The First Person ★★.5 Very happy story. Very. Happy. Frolickingly joyous. Excellent portrayal of relationship bliss. And it says far more about me than the story that I was absolutely bored by these two people in their blissfully happy relationship. May we all have one of those…but let’s not write about it, deal?
short review for busy readers:
11 stories about problematic/dysfunctional relationships and connections between people. Some are very short, some are confusing, all are well written and show a breath of knowledge about culture and people. On a meta level, the collection is about the short story genre itself and how it’s “like a nymph," hard to pin down any way you approach it.
in detail:
1. True short story. ★★★★ This was a lovely piece based on an experience in a cafe. Introduces the meta theme of the collection, which is the short story form itself and how it takes in the depth of one specific moment, and does not, like the novel, engage with longer processes.
2. The child ★★★ Reader fave according to reviews. Fab writing, shocking plot, but I had trouble interpreting it. Woman finds a small child in her supermarket shopping trolley. All attempts at trying to find its mother…or getting rid of it…fail.
3. Present. ★★★ well structured, subtile. Winter/Christmas themed. About a woman in a pub and the drunk bothering her because he wants to talk, or relive, Christmases of his childhood.
4. The third person. ★★★★ Fractured narrative connecting random people at random points in their lives. Seasonal changes and the weather act as the backdrop to the seasons and weather of human experience. Rather what I enjoy, although I know others don’t.
5. Fidelio and Bess ★★ Strange. Also a reader fave, but I rather disliked it. How cultural mash ups are unnecessary (mixing theatre plays), as a reflection of how mismatched, yet compatible, two women having an affair are.
6. The history of history: ★★ interesting short about a mum who cashes in her muminess. Fab writing, voice and dialogue…but ends abruptly and doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Would probs have been a 4 or 5 star if it had a direction.
7. No exit:★ confused, multi-example tale about being accidentally caught in situations with no way out or rescue. Rather vague.
8. The second person: ★★★ Fun story about two people who are more alike than they’d care to admit telling each other what they’re like. Shows off how badly we interpret other people’s words and opinions about ourselves.
9. I know something you don’t know ★★★★ Nice, if a little unsatisfactory, story about a boy who can’t get out of bed. The doctors are stumped, so his mum contacts some local hedge wizards to see if they can help…to unexpected results.
10. Writ ★★★.5 What would you say to your 14-year old self if you met them? Interesting situation but NO 14-year old is a graceful gazelle of a feminine beauty whose teen disgust and passive-aggressive behaviour is simply grand. Sorry, there’s being forgiving of yourself, and then there’s ‘parental blindness’. I don’t buy it…but pleasant story.
11. Astute fiery luxurious ★★★.5 not bad. Possible futures, possible outcomes. We have choices and what we do with those choices may change our lives completely.
12. The First Person ★★.5 Very happy story. Very. Happy. Frolickingly joyous. Excellent portrayal of relationship bliss. And it says far more about me than the story that I was absolutely bored by these two people in their blissfully happy relationship. May we all have one of those…but let’s not write about it, deal?
November 11, 2019
I have now read all of Ali Smith's novels and short stories. This is another fine collection which showcases most aspects of her writing - the stories vary from the almost factual to the surreal (in one the narrator meets her 14-year old self). As always there is plenty of humour, wordplay and erudition, and the collection is a very enjoyable read.
September 21, 2015
"You’re not the first person who was ever wounded by love. You’re not the first person who ever knocked on my door. You’re not the first person I ever chanced my arm with. You’re not the first person I ever tried to impress with my brilliant performance of not really being impressed with anything. You’re not the first person to make me laugh. You’re not the first person I ever made laugh. You’re not the first person full stop. But you’re the one right now. I’m the one right now."
I read this in May and meant to write up my thoughts on Ali Smith's The First Person a while ago but could not really find a way to start. I had already fangirled (on BookLikes) about two of the stories in this collection (Writ and Fidelio and Bess) and other than using the word "awesome" over and over again, I just could not think of any way to convey my impressions of this collection.
And then, this morning it hit me - what makes this collection of stories special for me is that it is easy to connect with the stories. Not necessarily connect from the point of familiarity of having been in the same situation - anyone who has read The Child will know what I mean - but connect in way that each story describes a state of connection between the main characters and their surroundings - other people, things, memories, etc. Some of the connections relate closeness, some alienation, but all of the stories managed to reach out to me as a reader. In particular, I enjoyed the ones marked (*):
true short story*
the child*
present*
the third person
fidelio and bess*
the history of history*
no exit
the second person
i know something you don’t know
writ*
astute fiery luxurious*
the first person*
So, this is not my first reading of Smith's work. It is not the first time I read a short story collection, nor is it the first one that grips me. It is not the first time an author leaves me wrapped up in the familiar and unfamiliar alike. It is not the first time an author can engage me in words and worlds I can connect with. But Smith right now is one of the few authors to manage to do this.
"It strikes me, as I look at it, that the table is way beyond my control. Up until this moment, I mean, I believed I owned that table. Now, looking at it out in the open air, I know that I don’t. I know for the first time that I maybe don’t own anything."
Review first posted on BookLikes.
I read this in May and meant to write up my thoughts on Ali Smith's The First Person a while ago but could not really find a way to start. I had already fangirled (on BookLikes) about two of the stories in this collection (Writ and Fidelio and Bess) and other than using the word "awesome" over and over again, I just could not think of any way to convey my impressions of this collection.
And then, this morning it hit me - what makes this collection of stories special for me is that it is easy to connect with the stories. Not necessarily connect from the point of familiarity of having been in the same situation - anyone who has read The Child will know what I mean - but connect in way that each story describes a state of connection between the main characters and their surroundings - other people, things, memories, etc. Some of the connections relate closeness, some alienation, but all of the stories managed to reach out to me as a reader. In particular, I enjoyed the ones marked (*):
true short story*
the child*
present*
the third person
fidelio and bess*
the history of history*
no exit
the second person
i know something you don’t know
writ*
astute fiery luxurious*
the first person*
So, this is not my first reading of Smith's work. It is not the first time I read a short story collection, nor is it the first one that grips me. It is not the first time an author leaves me wrapped up in the familiar and unfamiliar alike. It is not the first time an author can engage me in words and worlds I can connect with. But Smith right now is one of the few authors to manage to do this.
"It strikes me, as I look at it, that the table is way beyond my control. Up until this moment, I mean, I believed I owned that table. Now, looking at it out in the open air, I know that I don’t. I know for the first time that I maybe don’t own anything."
Review first posted on BookLikes.
July 2, 2022
I have not read Ali Smith before picking up this collection of short stories. I am a fan of the short story, and it is always a delight to see an author who not only still practices this form, but also does it well. While in the case of Ali Smith the result is a mixed bag, I have enjoyed reading her stories and will read more of her work in the future.
The First Person and Other Stories contains 12 very different stories. The opening one, "True Short Story" is one of the more interesting; the narrator, Ali, overhears two men talking about the difference between a novel and the short story, with one of them comparing the short story to a nimble nymph and the novel to a "flabby old whore"; the narrator then describes her friendship with Kasia, a specialist on the short story who suffers from cancer; the two try to define a short story together, helping themselves with vies of various well-known authors. Based on a real discussion, this story is a lovely tribute both to Ali Smith's real-life friend Kasia, and the short story as an art form.
The rest of the stories are strange and have a surreal mood. Present is a lovely story almost of the Henry James ilk, with a weary traveler stopping at a roadside pub and joining in at the conversation between the barmaid and a client, which in turn develops into the story of a local family. Fidelio and Bess mixes a Beethoven opera and a Jazz classic to describe an affair between two women; in Writ, an unexpected kiss somehow materializes the narrator's fourteen year old self in her house, and the two try to understand one another.
The Child is by far my favorite story from the entire volume. A woman goes to the supermarket to shop for groceries, and suddenly finds a beautiful but unknown child sitting in her shopping cart. No one from the staff or fellow shoppers recognize the child, and the woman cannot bring herself to abandon him but soon discovers that the little boy is definitely not what she expected him to be. The Child is a great short story: it has a simple premise which then is turned on its head completely, and because it is a short story it never overstays its welcome and does not wear its idea thin, its length being just right. It is also genuinely one of the funniest stories I have read recently - it really is funny, in a peculiar, surreal way, which is a great success. It was first published in the Blithe House Quarterly which generously shares the entire text on its website - you can read it here
and I would recommend it to anyone interested in reading a short story, the only form of literature where such stories are possible.
The First Person and Other Stories contains 12 very different stories. The opening one, "True Short Story" is one of the more interesting; the narrator, Ali, overhears two men talking about the difference between a novel and the short story, with one of them comparing the short story to a nimble nymph and the novel to a "flabby old whore"; the narrator then describes her friendship with Kasia, a specialist on the short story who suffers from cancer; the two try to define a short story together, helping themselves with vies of various well-known authors. Based on a real discussion, this story is a lovely tribute both to Ali Smith's real-life friend Kasia, and the short story as an art form.
The rest of the stories are strange and have a surreal mood. Present is a lovely story almost of the Henry James ilk, with a weary traveler stopping at a roadside pub and joining in at the conversation between the barmaid and a client, which in turn develops into the story of a local family. Fidelio and Bess mixes a Beethoven opera and a Jazz classic to describe an affair between two women; in Writ, an unexpected kiss somehow materializes the narrator's fourteen year old self in her house, and the two try to understand one another.
The Child is by far my favorite story from the entire volume. A woman goes to the supermarket to shop for groceries, and suddenly finds a beautiful but unknown child sitting in her shopping cart. No one from the staff or fellow shoppers recognize the child, and the woman cannot bring herself to abandon him but soon discovers that the little boy is definitely not what she expected him to be. The Child is a great short story: it has a simple premise which then is turned on its head completely, and because it is a short story it never overstays its welcome and does not wear its idea thin, its length being just right. It is also genuinely one of the funniest stories I have read recently - it really is funny, in a peculiar, surreal way, which is a great success. It was first published in the Blithe House Quarterly which generously shares the entire text on its website - you can read it here
and I would recommend it to anyone interested in reading a short story, the only form of literature where such stories are possible.
July 30, 2015
Imagine this would be possible: your present self living for a few days/hours with your 14 year old self. Like literally! What conversation would you have with such a younger version of yourself?
Your younger self makes insolence a thing of beauty, she looks at you as if you’re insane, she takes her coffee with milk, she likes the instant kinds of it without caring like you do that these are full of freezing agents that do all sorts of damage to your synapses. You want to amaze her that you have managed to buy a house which is full of books, idea that you had loved when you were her age. This phrase appalls you, it makes you feel old (when you were her age). You’d like to give her advice about important and unimportant things that she’ll have to deal with and how to take them, you’d like to tell her not to worry because she’ll be ok, you’d like to tell her that her mother will be ok, that she doesn’t die until you’re more than twice the age she is now, but you cannot do that. You want to tell her who to trust and who not to trust, you want to give her advice about everything you’ve learnt by having experiences so far, but you look at her sitting there, thin and insolent and complete and you cannot say any of it. It’d be terrible to proffer a friend she hasn’t met yet who then turns out not to be a friend.
Your 14 year old self is like half a word (she considers) and you’re a real whole word by itself. Like writ and written. It’s changed its meaning over time and at the same time it’s kept its meaning.
This book by Ali Smith turns out to have quite brilliant stories and this is just one of them. There are some which are not as good as this one, but it’s really worth going through them to get to read the others. I am totally taken with her style: she is imaginative and witty, her stories are unusual and full of unexpected...she is just the kind of author I like to read. The story above is called Writ, but I've also enjoyed very much The Third Person and Fidelio and Bess and, although I still have some stories left in the book, I couldn't help but write about the story I've just finished reading (Writ) which is simply brilliant.
It is shocking to see yourself as you haven’t been for nearly thirty years. It is also a bit embarrassing, having yourself around, watching your every move as watching your every move is the last thing that could possibly interest anyone.
Your younger self makes insolence a thing of beauty, she looks at you as if you’re insane, she takes her coffee with milk, she likes the instant kinds of it without caring like you do that these are full of freezing agents that do all sorts of damage to your synapses. You want to amaze her that you have managed to buy a house which is full of books, idea that you had loved when you were her age. This phrase appalls you, it makes you feel old (when you were her age). You’d like to give her advice about important and unimportant things that she’ll have to deal with and how to take them, you’d like to tell her not to worry because she’ll be ok, you’d like to tell her that her mother will be ok, that she doesn’t die until you’re more than twice the age she is now, but you cannot do that. You want to tell her who to trust and who not to trust, you want to give her advice about everything you’ve learnt by having experiences so far, but you look at her sitting there, thin and insolent and complete and you cannot say any of it. It’d be terrible to proffer a friend she hasn’t met yet who then turns out not to be a friend.
Your 14 year old self is like half a word (she considers) and you’re a real whole word by itself. Like writ and written. It’s changed its meaning over time and at the same time it’s kept its meaning.
This book by Ali Smith turns out to have quite brilliant stories and this is just one of them. There are some which are not as good as this one, but it’s really worth going through them to get to read the others. I am totally taken with her style: she is imaginative and witty, her stories are unusual and full of unexpected...she is just the kind of author I like to read. The story above is called Writ, but I've also enjoyed very much The Third Person and Fidelio and Bess and, although I still have some stories left in the book, I couldn't help but write about the story I've just finished reading (Writ) which is simply brilliant.
August 5, 2020
I love Ali Smith's stories. They are inventive, fun, generous, open, insightful, thought-provoking ... I could go on and on. I'd read three of these online before and they were a pleasure to read again.
The first five of the collection are strong (so are a couple of the later ones) and my favorite has to be "Fidelio and Bess," a story that interweaves the story of a present-day couple with the story in Beethoven's only opera and the story in the Gershwin opera to great effect: I thought about it for days. Even the stories that are not as strong had lovely endings and Smith's trademark way of looking at 'old' things with a new, fresh outlook. (See the ending of the last story, "The first person.")
A passage from the last story characterizes much of Ali Smith's work for me:
The first five of the collection are strong (so are a couple of the later ones) and my favorite has to be "Fidelio and Bess," a story that interweaves the story of a present-day couple with the story in Beethoven's only opera and the story in the Gershwin opera to great effect: I thought about it for days. Even the stories that are not as strong had lovely endings and Smith's trademark way of looking at 'old' things with a new, fresh outlook. (See the ending of the last story, "The first person.")
A passage from the last story characterizes much of Ali Smith's work for me:
It [a TV story] had sacrificed its girl character to a horrible end for the sake of a neat story; I had been arguing with the neatness and foulness and cynicism of it in my head all night. I had woken up still trying to think of alternative endings for the girl in the story, still granting her character a more open road, a kinder shape of things.
February 7, 2017
2015: I read the entirety of this sitting in the library in Bury St Edmunds, and loved every word.
2017: It feels so wonderful that I have the opportunity to reread this collection, and include it in my thesis.
2017: It feels so wonderful that I have the opportunity to reread this collection, and include it in my thesis.
October 5, 2011
A ragbag of tales here, ranging from the directly emotional (‘True Short Story’ and the title piece), to the intellectually playful (‘Fidelio and Bess’ and ‘Astute Fiery Luxurious’) to the downright hilarious and strange (‘The Child’ and ‘No Exit’). When I first read Ali Smith I was unimpressed (hence this two-rating of Other Stories) and narked at her constant inclusion of the reader as a character—most of the first-person stories replace a character name with ‘you,’ which I found a contrived ploy at times, then quite repetitive. This technique is still present here, but its purpose is a little clearer, more intimate. Plus I have built up a resistance to it, having read the previous collection.
Smith’s shorts are the opposite of her novels: stripped-down language, conversational, loose syntax, a lazy feel. Clearly these are mere deceptions, for deeper down her work subverts old story forms and has a more postmodern aesthetic, and moments of warmth and radiance rise from the page regardless of how many cockamamie dialogues we’re being drawn into. Still: I can’t help the feeling I won’t fully embrace her shorts as I did her novels. Here’s hoping.
Smith’s shorts are the opposite of her novels: stripped-down language, conversational, loose syntax, a lazy feel. Clearly these are mere deceptions, for deeper down her work subverts old story forms and has a more postmodern aesthetic, and moments of warmth and radiance rise from the page regardless of how many cockamamie dialogues we’re being drawn into. Still: I can’t help the feeling I won’t fully embrace her shorts as I did her novels. Here’s hoping.
October 4, 2020
Faccio la conoscenza di Ali Smith con questo indefinibile e originale libro di racconti che inizia, con un volo metaletterario, dalla domanda sul racconto: come possiamo definirlo? E qual è la differenza dal romanzo?
La narratrice ascolta una conversazione al bar: è una discussione a tema letterario ed è anche l’avvio di un contenuto espresso in forma di metafora su cui lei comincerà a riflettere: se il romanzo è una vecchia puttana cadente, il racconto è una ninfa dal corpo snello. E così sapremo che ne pensa Kafka, Todorov, Eudora Welty, Alice Munro, Nadine Gordimer...e via via scivolando di suggestione in suggestione.
La conclusione, data la premessa, e passando per un celebre mito, è a dir poco stupefacente. “E quand’è allora che il racconto si può paragonare a una ninfa? Quando la sua eco ci risponde.”
In quanto lettrici e lettori possiamo sperimentarlo per ciascuno dei dodici racconti.
Fino all’ultima superficie riflettente:
“Tu non sei la prima persona che è stata ferita nell'amore. Non sei la prima persona che ha bussato alla mia porta. Non sei la prima persona per la quale mi sono giocata un braccio. Non sei la prima persona che ho cercato di impressionare recitando brillantemente la parte di quella che non si lascia impressionare. Non sei la prima persona che mi fa ridere. Non sei la prima persona che ho fatto ridere. Non sei la prima persona punto. Ma sei la persona in questo momento. E io sono la persona in questo momento. Noi siamo le persone in questo momento. E questo basta, no?”
Geniale.
La narratrice ascolta una conversazione al bar: è una discussione a tema letterario ed è anche l’avvio di un contenuto espresso in forma di metafora su cui lei comincerà a riflettere: se il romanzo è una vecchia puttana cadente, il racconto è una ninfa dal corpo snello. E così sapremo che ne pensa Kafka, Todorov, Eudora Welty, Alice Munro, Nadine Gordimer...e via via scivolando di suggestione in suggestione.
La conclusione, data la premessa, e passando per un celebre mito, è a dir poco stupefacente. “E quand’è allora che il racconto si può paragonare a una ninfa? Quando la sua eco ci risponde.”
In quanto lettrici e lettori possiamo sperimentarlo per ciascuno dei dodici racconti.
Fino all’ultima superficie riflettente:
“Tu non sei la prima persona che è stata ferita nell'amore. Non sei la prima persona che ha bussato alla mia porta. Non sei la prima persona per la quale mi sono giocata un braccio. Non sei la prima persona che ho cercato di impressionare recitando brillantemente la parte di quella che non si lascia impressionare. Non sei la prima persona che mi fa ridere. Non sei la prima persona che ho fatto ridere. Non sei la prima persona punto. Ma sei la persona in questo momento. E io sono la persona in questo momento. Noi siamo le persone in questo momento. E questo basta, no?”
Geniale.
January 9, 2018
Weirdly satisfying read.
I have vowed to read works of Ali Smith. I don’t know why, but I feel like it is very essential for every reader to read her works. Funny when I say this, because I wasn’t exposed to any of her works before. I never even have met a person so passionate about her books but there was this unshakeable feeling at the recesses of my being telling me to read her works or I will regret it for the rest of my life. And so here we are. I am an Ali Smith virgin no more, and I am beyond happy. I was right about her! I was right about her writing style and how it was able to feel so relatable to a certain extent yet felt utterly weird all at once. I dived in this book not knowing what I’m in for. Turns out I was in for a huge treat, what, with all this peculiarity that doesn’t quite make sense, and does all at the same time.
It is indeed hard to write a review for a short story collection, just as hard as writing a review for a poetry book, but I seriously hope I could give this book the justice it deserves. The First Person and Other Stories I think is an underrated Ali Smith book, I have never heard of it before, I just luckily chanced upon it in a secondhand bookstore. The kind of impulse buy we have once in a while. As I am slowly collecting Ali Smith’s books, when I saw this I knew then it had to go home with me. Reading it was a whole different story of elation. I had really no plans of reading it when I did, I had something else in mind, but as I was browsing my bookshelves, I looked at this book for a second too long. I read the first page and before I know it I am already at the last story. It was a sweet albeit weird ride. I keep throwing the word weird, why you ask, because weird is the perfect description of this story collection. Weird in a good way. The kind of weird that will stay with you for a long time. The kind of weird you want to encounter over and over again.
The First Person and Other Stories gives off dark humour and bits and pieces of everyday life that you often take for granted. I loved how every story had its own wit, its own take on everyday mundane lives and turned it into something meaningful and relevant. How something so trivial can have such a rippling effect in the future. This book didn’t stop at just telling stories, it transcends into this realm of understanding human flaws that was presented in a captivating light, not just highlighting the good parts but most especially the bad ones. That once it all meld together it was just a beautiful piece of an odd art. What strikes me more about this book is it is thought-provoking at best. At first you wouldn’t see the relevance of it all, but once you completely immerse yourself in the book, you’ll literally feel that everything surrounding you is all a blur, that you have formed some kind of bond with the book and nothing could ever break it. Each story is beautiful in its own right. It showcases different facets of one’s life and when put together in this one collection, it complements each other resulting into a coherent book. Ali Smith is a storyteller like no other. Each of the story in this collection, ended in such a way that leaves its reader begging for more yet at the same time satisfied as to how it concluded.
It is overall like a good and intellectual conversation with a stranger, that kind of conversation you’ll replay for days on end.
My favourite stories are:
True Short Story
The Child
No exit
The Second Person
Writ
Astute Fiery Luxurious
The First Person
I have vowed to read works of Ali Smith. I don’t know why, but I feel like it is very essential for every reader to read her works. Funny when I say this, because I wasn’t exposed to any of her works before. I never even have met a person so passionate about her books but there was this unshakeable feeling at the recesses of my being telling me to read her works or I will regret it for the rest of my life. And so here we are. I am an Ali Smith virgin no more, and I am beyond happy. I was right about her! I was right about her writing style and how it was able to feel so relatable to a certain extent yet felt utterly weird all at once. I dived in this book not knowing what I’m in for. Turns out I was in for a huge treat, what, with all this peculiarity that doesn’t quite make sense, and does all at the same time.
It is indeed hard to write a review for a short story collection, just as hard as writing a review for a poetry book, but I seriously hope I could give this book the justice it deserves. The First Person and Other Stories I think is an underrated Ali Smith book, I have never heard of it before, I just luckily chanced upon it in a secondhand bookstore. The kind of impulse buy we have once in a while. As I am slowly collecting Ali Smith’s books, when I saw this I knew then it had to go home with me. Reading it was a whole different story of elation. I had really no plans of reading it when I did, I had something else in mind, but as I was browsing my bookshelves, I looked at this book for a second too long. I read the first page and before I know it I am already at the last story. It was a sweet albeit weird ride. I keep throwing the word weird, why you ask, because weird is the perfect description of this story collection. Weird in a good way. The kind of weird that will stay with you for a long time. The kind of weird you want to encounter over and over again.
The First Person and Other Stories gives off dark humour and bits and pieces of everyday life that you often take for granted. I loved how every story had its own wit, its own take on everyday mundane lives and turned it into something meaningful and relevant. How something so trivial can have such a rippling effect in the future. This book didn’t stop at just telling stories, it transcends into this realm of understanding human flaws that was presented in a captivating light, not just highlighting the good parts but most especially the bad ones. That once it all meld together it was just a beautiful piece of an odd art. What strikes me more about this book is it is thought-provoking at best. At first you wouldn’t see the relevance of it all, but once you completely immerse yourself in the book, you’ll literally feel that everything surrounding you is all a blur, that you have formed some kind of bond with the book and nothing could ever break it. Each story is beautiful in its own right. It showcases different facets of one’s life and when put together in this one collection, it complements each other resulting into a coherent book. Ali Smith is a storyteller like no other. Each of the story in this collection, ended in such a way that leaves its reader begging for more yet at the same time satisfied as to how it concluded.
It is overall like a good and intellectual conversation with a stranger, that kind of conversation you’ll replay for days on end.
My favourite stories are:
True Short Story
The Child
No exit
The Second Person
Writ
Astute Fiery Luxurious
The First Person
October 19, 2014
I always find short story collections hard to review. What can I say? Some stories were great! and some stories were so-so. I've always enjoyed Ali Smith's unique prose and her characters are always believable, even when she writes of foul mouth children or the such. I liked this collection, although I find hard not to like anything that Ali Smith writes.
April 29, 2018
This collection is so fresh and offbeat it makes other story collections feel recycled. How do I explain these stories? I feel like I was invited to the table of the most interesting and unusual person/couple in a restaurant. The stories left me shaking my head or smiling. Or both.
Read
March 11, 2025«Sobre os contos em si, em The First Person and Other Stories encontramos dois grandes tipos de histórias diferentes: textos que brincam com o processo de escrita e as perspetivas que usamos, bem como narrativas que agarram um momento muito concreto da vida das personagens e mostram o seu real impacto, muitas vezes através de diálogo. Admito que o primeiro género de contos foi o que mais me agradou — achei muito refrescantes e diferentes daquilo que habitualmente leio.»
Review completa em: https://ritadanova.blogs.sapo.pt/the-....
Review completa em: https://ritadanova.blogs.sapo.pt/the-....
July 23, 2021
Although I am a huge fan of Ali Smith's novels, I am totally lukewarm towards her short stories. Once again, this problem cropped up with The First Person. I will say this though: The first two stories are brilliant. Unfortunately it's a bumpy ride from there. Some stories worked and some didn't. That's all I have to say really.
October 27, 2008
My dog has been waking me up every two or three hours every night. Last night she was licking her water bowl and dragging it across the floor, so I filled it then went back to bed; then she woke me up two hours later 'cause she had to pee, and then she woke me up two more hours later because she was excited and wanted to jump on my face and dig into my skull like there was peanut butter in there. Did you know they've done science experiments with sleep where they interrupt your sleep a bunch of times and then you go insane, develop psychic powers and kill the men in the government lab that's imprisoned you? You explode their heads with your mind. Anyway, I'm at the pissed off insane part, but not the telekinexplosiveness part.
Anyway, I'm not trying to write a non-sequitir ol Vice album review, I just want you to understand that I felt all deranged when I finished this book, and that I still feel deranged while I'm writing this. I was in love with it and Ms Smith is a genius- we already knew that- but she is funny and playful, in a very serious way, which means if you are crying because you want to kill your dog- who is "forty pounds of muscle," according to the vet- then she is not the appropriatest author to read.
It's also weird to read the summaries on the back of the book. "This story is about a woman who meets her fourteen year old self and doesn't know what to do!" No, that's what happens in the story, but it's really about memory and sadness and bewilderment at who you used to be and kind of bittersweet affection. I don't know. I like that the stories are concentrated enough to be pretty short without sacrificing impact and I like that, whenever I go "Jeez, HERE'S an exercise in a boring conceit," the story goes somewhere I didn't expect and I have to acknowledge that I am an asshole at LEAST as much as my dog.
Anyway, I'm not trying to write a non-sequitir ol Vice album review, I just want you to understand that I felt all deranged when I finished this book, and that I still feel deranged while I'm writing this. I was in love with it and Ms Smith is a genius- we already knew that- but she is funny and playful, in a very serious way, which means if you are crying because you want to kill your dog- who is "forty pounds of muscle," according to the vet- then she is not the appropriatest author to read.
It's also weird to read the summaries on the back of the book. "This story is about a woman who meets her fourteen year old self and doesn't know what to do!" No, that's what happens in the story, but it's really about memory and sadness and bewilderment at who you used to be and kind of bittersweet affection. I don't know. I like that the stories are concentrated enough to be pretty short without sacrificing impact and I like that, whenever I go "Jeez, HERE'S an exercise in a boring conceit," the story goes somewhere I didn't expect and I have to acknowledge that I am an asshole at LEAST as much as my dog.
March 1, 2015
4 days: I think this is the fastest I've ever read a full short stories collection, because I usually like to take a short break after one or two, let them swirl nicely in my head first, before plunging back into the rest. But Ali Smith's short stories are shorter than most that I've read from other authors, and she really organises them meaningfully in this collection so that they flow very well together with tight overarching themes.
Perhaps inevitably, I looooove some of these stories, feel mixed and confused about a few, then feel drained and tossed about by the remaining few. Luckily, the ones I looooove make up most of the stories! True short story was special. It has a lovely intimate first-person voice and a wonderful balance of hope, comedy, sadness and satire. As I read the other stories, I realised Ali Smith does this deliberately and strategically (if that's the right word) in probably all of them. That first story, No exit, The second person, Writ and the title story, The first person made me feel all sorts of emotions and they linger in my head as I keep reflecting on them and seeing them from new angles. The child was hilariously weird. Present and Astute fiery luxurious were interesting but to me they felt... undeveloped? I was confused by them, clearly. The third person, Fidelio and Bess and I know something you don't know are even more confusing to me! I feel so discourage now, ha ha! Anyway, great stories by Ali Smith, you shouldn't miss the 5 stories that I mentioned I just looooved above.
Perhaps inevitably, I looooove some of these stories, feel mixed and confused about a few, then feel drained and tossed about by the remaining few. Luckily, the ones I looooove make up most of the stories! True short story was special. It has a lovely intimate first-person voice and a wonderful balance of hope, comedy, sadness and satire. As I read the other stories, I realised Ali Smith does this deliberately and strategically (if that's the right word) in probably all of them. That first story, No exit, The second person, Writ and the title story, The first person made me feel all sorts of emotions and they linger in my head as I keep reflecting on them and seeing them from new angles. The child was hilariously weird. Present and Astute fiery luxurious were interesting but to me they felt... undeveloped? I was confused by them, clearly. The third person, Fidelio and Bess and I know something you don't know are even more confusing to me! I feel so discourage now, ha ha! Anyway, great stories by Ali Smith, you shouldn't miss the 5 stories that I mentioned I just looooved above.
December 30, 2014
Halfway through reading this I started daydreaming that one day I might run into Ali Smith in a British pub and I'd try to buy her a drink and she'd accept but gently in the flow of the conversation remind me that she's almost the same age as my mother and not much inclined to go to bed with readers regardless. And even her rejection would leave me with the kind of sweet soreness that would have me send some kind of starry-eyed email a week later and then I'd forget I'd said anything until the next time I ran into her name on a bookshelf somewhere and then I'd be embarrassed but not painfully.
I'm not sure what I got from this book, a lot of the stories are meanderings in the telling of stories as the title suggests, they start in one place and wander into the storey above and then pop down from the meta layer into a different place, and back and forth. I don't think it'll stay with me but obviously I liked it. And I kind of like that I don't know what it means or what it does, it's charming like a person, and like a person, it doesn't need too much of a purpose or impact for you to enjoy whatever time you have together.
I liked this:
"You hold me very tight in under my clothes, and if there's a library anywhere near then someone just removed its roof, the shelves just flooded with sun and all the old books just remembered what it means to be bound in skin and to have a spine."
There is nothing wrong with enjoying something that makes you feel okay about your probable future as a hopelessly romantic bookish lesbian, that's all I'm saying.
I'm not sure what I got from this book, a lot of the stories are meanderings in the telling of stories as the title suggests, they start in one place and wander into the storey above and then pop down from the meta layer into a different place, and back and forth. I don't think it'll stay with me but obviously I liked it. And I kind of like that I don't know what it means or what it does, it's charming like a person, and like a person, it doesn't need too much of a purpose or impact for you to enjoy whatever time you have together.
I liked this:
"You hold me very tight in under my clothes, and if there's a library anywhere near then someone just removed its roof, the shelves just flooded with sun and all the old books just remembered what it means to be bound in skin and to have a spine."
There is nothing wrong with enjoying something that makes you feel okay about your probable future as a hopelessly romantic bookish lesbian, that's all I'm saying.
November 27, 2017
I feel like there might be something wrong with me that I don't seem to be getting on well with Ali Smith. I read Autumn, and although I gave it five stars I can't remember it at all. I picked up this to see what I thought of her short stories, but I found it too aware of itself, too clever for clever's sake, rather than the story's sake. All the way through I was aware of the writer. I can only suppose that's deliberate - I'm sure Smith knows exactly what she's doing - but it's not really for me. I want to fall into a story and forget I'm there until I emerge into daylight at the end.
March 17, 2024
another collection of short stories by ali smith that exemplifies just what makes her so brilliant. while each story is an enjoyable read, i want to highlight the short story ‘writ’ where the narrator meets her 14-year-old self. my goodness, did this touch me. i have been left with many thoughts about my 14-year-old self who is out there somewhere, unaware of just how the future will go. i have a better fondness for that girl now. thank you, ali smith.
”i know for the first time that i maybe don’t own anything. if it rains tonight, the wood won’t warp immediately. but if we leave it out there for long enough in the open air, it’ll split. it’ll buckle open. it’ll stain. it’ll have little tracks all over it where wasps and other creatures have gnawed at it for nest material. its legs will sink into the grass, grass will come up and round the sides of its legs. bindweed will find it. heat and cold will ruin it. greenness will swallow it up, will die down and spring back up round it, will make it old, ruined, weathered. i don’t know what i’ll think tomorrow or the next day, but this is what i think right now. it’s the best thing that could happen to anything i ever imagined was mine.”
”i know for the first time that i maybe don’t own anything. if it rains tonight, the wood won’t warp immediately. but if we leave it out there for long enough in the open air, it’ll split. it’ll buckle open. it’ll stain. it’ll have little tracks all over it where wasps and other creatures have gnawed at it for nest material. its legs will sink into the grass, grass will come up and round the sides of its legs. bindweed will find it. heat and cold will ruin it. greenness will swallow it up, will die down and spring back up round it, will make it old, ruined, weathered. i don’t know what i’ll think tomorrow or the next day, but this is what i think right now. it’s the best thing that could happen to anything i ever imagined was mine.”
April 7, 2017
I have mixed feelings about The First Person & other stories. Some short stories I absolutely loved, and some I’m not even sure I understood or if they were even meant to make sense in the first place. But short story collections are always wonderful to explore and I managed to track down some common themes in this one as well.
I loved how the author told stories within stories. I loved her narratives and the use of “you”. Most of the stories were shown instead of told which is the best a story can be. The title “pair” of ‘The third person’, ‘the second person’ and ‘the first person’ were amazingly connected and especially well-written. The author used experimental writing in most of her stories, and some of them successful while other in my opinion, weren’t.
This collection has taught me a lot about story-telling, narratives and flow. I always find short story collection interesting and educational - the parts I don’t like perhaps even more educational than the parts I do like.
I loved how the author told stories within stories. I loved her narratives and the use of “you”. Most of the stories were shown instead of told which is the best a story can be. The title “pair” of ‘The third person’, ‘the second person’ and ‘the first person’ were amazingly connected and especially well-written. The author used experimental writing in most of her stories, and some of them successful while other in my opinion, weren’t.
This collection has taught me a lot about story-telling, narratives and flow. I always find short story collection interesting and educational - the parts I don’t like perhaps even more educational than the parts I do like.
January 19, 2019
‘De eerste persoon en andere verhalen’ is een prachtige bundel. Ali Smith heeft me doen schaterlachen, maar heeft me ook geraakt met haar mooie observaties, bijzondere perspectieven en fijne schrijfstijl. Vaak kon ik het geslacht van de personages niet achterhalen, maar dat maakt helemaal niets uit. Gender staat los van ervaringen situaties en gevoelens. Ik ben heel benieuwd om meer van deze schrijfster te gaan lezen!
Mijn complete recensie lees je op Boekvinder.be.
Mijn complete recensie lees je op Boekvinder.be.
December 14, 2020
Uma das coisas que mais gosto em um escritor é quando este é transparente com o seu leitor, ao ponto de não poder esconder-lhe a sua vontade de contar alguma coisa. E é nesse ímpeto incoercível que Ali Smith, esta escritora escocesa que tem ganhado tanto espaço na literatura contemporânea, chega aos meus olhos neste fim de ano.
Numa coletânea de doze contos breves, Ali Smith consegue mostrar seu talento (e vontade) de contar histórias. Alguns contos são, simplesmente, absurdamente excelentes, principalmente os três primeiros.
"Um Conto Real" é basicamente um ensaio metalinguístico sobre a arte de escrever contos, ao mesmo tempo em que conhecemos Kasia, amiga da narradora, que luta para ter acesso a um medicamento moderno para o tratamento de câncer de mama. O segundo conto, "A Criança", é um conto magistral. Senti um arrepio na coluna como só Cortázar já me fez sentir. Em linhas gerais, é isto: uma mulher encontra uma criança no seu carrinho de compras - o desenrolar mágico dessa história vale o livro. Menções honrosas: "A Segunda Pessoa" e "Eu sei uma coisa que você não sabe”. Contos muito, muito bons.
Os demais são apenas bons, alguns até apenas "acima da média". De qualquer forma, mesmo nesses contos mais medianos, Ali Smith se destaca, criando uma narrativa que poderia chamar de "ágil" ou "sagaz", como todo contista deveria ser.
Numa coletânea de doze contos breves, Ali Smith consegue mostrar seu talento (e vontade) de contar histórias. Alguns contos são, simplesmente, absurdamente excelentes, principalmente os três primeiros.
"Um Conto Real" é basicamente um ensaio metalinguístico sobre a arte de escrever contos, ao mesmo tempo em que conhecemos Kasia, amiga da narradora, que luta para ter acesso a um medicamento moderno para o tratamento de câncer de mama. O segundo conto, "A Criança", é um conto magistral. Senti um arrepio na coluna como só Cortázar já me fez sentir. Em linhas gerais, é isto: uma mulher encontra uma criança no seu carrinho de compras - o desenrolar mágico dessa história vale o livro. Menções honrosas: "A Segunda Pessoa" e "Eu sei uma coisa que você não sabe”. Contos muito, muito bons.
Os demais são apenas bons, alguns até apenas "acima da média". De qualquer forma, mesmo nesses contos mais medianos, Ali Smith se destaca, criando uma narrativa que poderia chamar de "ágil" ou "sagaz", como todo contista deveria ser.
June 28, 2018
I think short stories are the kind of art my "little" brain doesn't comprehends. And also short stories are not the best place to start if you are looking to read new authors. Its my first Ali Smith's book and i ddin't like it. There are 11 stories in this collection and out of which i only liked 3 : THE CHILD, THE THIRD PERSON, THE PRESENT.
All the other stories ( including THE FIRST PERSON on which the title of the book is based ) were boring, without any logic or at least i didn't get the logic behind them and impossibly boring. The stories ended without any conclusion or any stories and after reading them i was like " THAT'S ALL I'M GONNA GET ".
But i will read something else by this author in the future.
All the other stories ( including THE FIRST PERSON on which the title of the book is based ) were boring, without any logic or at least i didn't get the logic behind them and impossibly boring. The stories ended without any conclusion or any stories and after reading them i was like " THAT'S ALL I'M GONNA GET ".
But i will read something else by this author in the future.
September 14, 2016
Maybe 3.5. This one was a bit of a mix for me, and not as strong as the other collection of hers I've read (Other Stories and Other Stories). There were some brilliant ones in the second half of the collection, especially 'The First Person', 'No exit', 'The history of histories' and 'Writ', but the first
five stories out of the 12 weren't nearly as strong for me.
five stories out of the 12 weren't nearly as strong for me.
September 10, 2018
Beautiful, unusual, inventive short stories.
July 23, 2016
Ali Smith is clearly talented. I recently loved her novel There But for the although I don't think I understood absolutely every point that she made. I received the same response with this collection of short stories. There are preposterous situations in these stories that I loved: a baby suddenly appears in a woman's shopping cart at the grocery store; a woman suddenly gets up in the middle of a movie and goes through the emergency exit that is not really an exit at all; a boy returns home from elementary school and doesn't leave his bed for six months. In typical Ali Smith style she played with gender and the format of narrative itself (first person, second person, third person). But overall I feel that I'm just not smart enough to fully grasp Ali Smith, though this will not deter me from continuing to read her novels and short stories.
October 3, 2016
4,5/5 excellent short stories, I do love Ali Smith's writing !
June 20, 2018
Gostei mais do livro Amor Livre e outras histórias. Mas continuo a adorar a escrita e a imaginação da Ali Smith para criar pequenas histórias.
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