How to be Both in Reading with Style

Nov 21, 2022 Bucket rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: life-and-death, reviewed, identity, word-play, history, literary, communication, friendship, experimental, many-perspectives

I've had a sense for a while (too long, I've waited!) that I would really like Ali Smith. Here I am, then, officially saying that I love her. This book grabbed me from the start and was basically tickling my brain from start to finish. I love that many current writers (particularly women) are quietly dispensing with the need for structure and form, without feeling like they need to be smug or self-aggrandizing about it. Smith switches perspectives two-thirds of the way through without concern or ...more

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Jan 10, 2015 Claire Jefferies rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, to-buy, five-stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Brilliant. My first five star read of 2015, and one that I want to immediately start again from the beginning (but which beginning??). I've never read anything by Ali Smith until now and didn't know much about How to be both other than it was a Booker Finalist and showed up on a handful of year end best of 2014 lists. Since I checked this out from the library, I didn't have a choice of which version of the book I received - although I'm actually not sure if I even knew about the clever "one" and ...more

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Jul 31, 2014 Karen Michele Burns rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-5-star-books, womens-prize-winners, goldsmiths-winners

While reading Vanessa and Her Sister(Virginia Woolf), I started How to Be Both by Ali Smith, cracked open the cover, and was met with a quote from The Telegraph, “An heir to Virginia Woolf.” My copy began with the section written in stream of consciousness style similar with the feel of Woolf’s writing set in The Renaissance (copies were published with the stories in the opposite order with the present day story told first as well). I love historical fiction about art of all kinds and was drawn ...more

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