Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

How to Be Both by Ali Smith

1 review

helen's review against another edition

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4.0

This book was published with two editions which have the same text but swap who's story comes first. The first half of the book will either be about George, a 16 year old girl living in contemporary Cambridge who's mother has just died, or Francescho, a Renaissance artist in 15th century Ferrara, who painted the fresco visited by George and her mother just before her death.

In my ebook version, Francescho's story came first*. This part starts off with an unconventional structure and I had difficulty sinking into the narrative. If I'd read George's story first, I would've enjoyed it more.

So with the caveat that you should read George's story first, I recommend it for readers who like:
  • Queer protagonists
  • The power of art (definitely look up the real artwork while reading)
  • Writing that has humour while deftly dealing with some heavy themes, including death, grief and identity
  • Re-reading - you get so much more on a second read, once the whole story (the overpainting and the underpainting) is revealed.
  • The occasional experimental writing - word fragments, layout, tense trickery, song lyrics (including a lyric about DNA set to the meter of Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus and then translated into Latin)

*My ebook version had both editions - Francescho followed by George, and then George followed by Francescho.

Content notes:
both protagonists have mothers who die young, grief, references to war executions, racist/xenophobic slur (infidel), plague, a character is discovered to be cross-dressing after being grabbed in the crotch (no outing happens as a result), on page sex, off page violent death of minor character, description of flaying as depicted in a painting, alcohol abuse
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