by Ali Smith
"But the fact is, how do you know anything is true? Duh, obviously, records and so on, but how do you know that the records are true? Things are not just true because the internet says they are. Really the phrase should be, not the fact is, but the fact seems to be." It is incredibly difficult to ...
This is a must read if one is interested in language and psychology packaged into a little mystery that is nicely harmless but definitely weird.
I found the fragmented language and word-play impressive and a lot of sentences (e.g. almost every line spoken by Brooke) quoteworthy, but failed to really enjoy it as a story, probably due to my lack of English proficiency or background knowledge.
THERE was once a man who, one night between the main course and the sweet at a dinner party, went upstairs and locked himself in one of the bedrooms of the house of the people who were giving the dinner party.There was once a woman who had met this man thirty years before, had known him slightly for...
I almost abandoned this book many times during the 275 pages but hung in there with the conviction that it would all come together and make sense before the end. Sadly, I admit that I'm just not clever enough to ascertain what the point was so ended up hugely disappointed with it.
Wow. I just want to hug this book. That incredibly rare thing, in the 2010s, a totally contemporary novel that isn't cynical or bitter or cute. Clever, yes. Very. What's it about? I'm not sure I can articulate an answer. It might be about martyrdom. Or it might be about losing one's humanity, and tr...
Sorry -- it sounded like a winner and I more or less enjoyed the first section, but it went downhill fast. The whole no-punctuation, rambling style got very old, very quickly. I found myself skimming more and more, pausing only here and there for small bits of substance. A disappointment for me.
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