Reviews

Artful by Ali Smith

imerjanian's review against another edition

3.0

I’m so torn on this book. Sometimes it was the most pensive, beautifully written prose that used references to literature to enhance a fascinating story of a lover lost. Other times it was page after page of dense literary reference that was hard to follow and not interesting enough to try.

I’d recommend reading the first two sections and leaving the last two sections for a time when you have a lot of patience.

emilyas93's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

carlacarinreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

midnightmoon12's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

3.75

nick_jenkins's review against another edition

5.0

The only question is, is Ali Smith my favorite living writer, or my favorite writer full stop? Reading Smith makes me feel better about humanity.

saturnsmoons's review against another edition

4.0

incredible collection of essays that both go on auto-theory and auto-fiction. my two favourite pieces are "on time" and "on offer and reflection". the prose and intensity of these texts were fascinating and I adore the mix of the to genres that are blended perfectly in this novel. these speeches were also a beautiful tribute to literature as a whole.

tilla's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

This was an inspiring read. I found myself stopping to look up things mentioned multiple times and have several quotes underlined. The narrative is touching and emotional and it made me tear up slightly in the end. I didn't expect that. I didn't know how I would feel about the essay parts in the novel, but they were very interesting in themselves and added to the story - the mix of narrative and essay worked well together. It is a book that I think would also benefit for being read again, as is also a point in the book. You wouldn't say you really know what a song is about after hearing it just once. 

katiejames's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

jenmkin's review against another edition

4.0

Smith’s story is well-crafted, and the essays within it are intriguing, but no matter how nicely they were united in the end, I wanted more of just the story or just the essays. That said, this was a clearly well-thought-out premise and Smith’s style was perfect for its execution

solarpages's review against another edition

funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

5.0