Ali Smith
My own opinions are as deeply divided on this book as those of the Internet at large, a fact that doesn't bode particularly well for Smith's intriguing novel. The problem is that the plot of the novel is neglected for the sake of the writing, which is absolutely fantastic. The novel is slow to build and it is hard to isolate plot elements as such in between the gentle ebb and flow of Smith's comfortable and moving prose. None of this sinks the novel entirely; in fact, for a novel with a palpable lack of solid plot, the book is remarkably engaging. Chalk this up to the vivid character portraits of the book's first act (aptly titled "the beginning"). The book begins with Astrid, a twelve year old fond of misappropriating the phrase "i.e." and who becomes immediately enthralled by a strange newcomer, Amber, whose perspective is always shadowy and funneled through the often contradictory viewpoints of the other members of Astrid's family. Smith shows a gift for poetic prose that is real enough to stay just on the safe side of pretension and channels the pre-adolescent mind with shocking accuracy, if overestimating the twelve-year-old and underestimating the seventeen-year-old a bit. Likewise, the portrait of Magnus presented in the second chapter is a perfect blend of action and thought. The reader is made subtly aware of the thoughts running through the depressed teen's mind and see how he interacts with his family and with Amber.
The novel begins to falter, however, with the adults and as the book progresses. The entire novel becomes a series of meditations rooted in each character's mentality, rendered through excellent use of shifting third-person limited narration and by its end the characters have changed without any real explanation why. Readers are taken through the summer with the characters only to find them, in "the end", after the summer holiday and in inexplicable places. There are rapid shifts of character with no real explanations why, and the end itself is rooted in a plot twist to hyperbolic to have any resonance. The novel is an example of excellent experimental prose (with a dash of a character's bad poetry thrown in for good measure) that simply lacks any driving force or sense of cause and effect. It is admirable that Smith seeks to place such an interesting new spin on the stranger-comes-to-town motif, but she does so without unleashing any of the stock plot's potential, refusing to tap into the psychology that makes it so engaging in the first place. The book is worth reading with a grain of salt, if only for its excellent first third and mediocre middle, but by the end the excellence of the writing is unable to sustain the book's full 303 pages.
Grade: B
The novel begins to falter, however, with the adults and as the book progresses. The entire novel becomes a series of meditations rooted in each character's mentality, rendered through excellent use of shifting third-person limited narration and by its end the characters have changed without any real explanation why. Readers are taken through the summer with the characters only to find them, in "the end", after the summer holiday and in inexplicable places. There are rapid shifts of character with no real explanations why, and the end itself is rooted in a plot twist to hyperbolic to have any resonance. The novel is an example of excellent experimental prose (with a dash of a character's bad poetry thrown in for good measure) that simply lacks any driving force or sense of cause and effect. It is admirable that Smith seeks to place such an interesting new spin on the stranger-comes-to-town motif, but she does so without unleashing any of the stock plot's potential, refusing to tap into the psychology that makes it so engaging in the first place. The book is worth reading with a grain of salt, if only for its excellent first third and mediocre middle, but by the end the excellence of the writing is unable to sustain the book's full 303 pages.
Grade: B
1 comment:
you just expressed my thoughts exactly, only better!
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