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A review by podsticles
The First Person and Other Stories by Ali Smith
3.0
While there is no doubt that Ali Smith is a good writer, I don’t feel like anyone ever mentions how unusual her subjects are. While I enjoyed reading Autumn, I thought there were parts that were quite obscure and didn’t belong in the story. Smith had shoehorned Pauline Boty and Christine Keeler into a book in which, in my opinion, they didn’t really have a part to play. And I feel the same about some of the topics in this collection - some seem a bit shoehorned in, without necessarily working or making sense.
With this collection, while the writing is excellent, it’s all just a bit strange.
In ‘The Child’ the narrator returns to her shopping trolley to discover an unknown baby sitting in it. Nobody in the supermarket owns the baby, everyone insists it is hers, so she eventually ends up taking it away in her car. And then the baby starts talking (“And as for gay weddings. Don't make me laugh”) and swearing at her, which I found incredibly creepy - I kept picturing Chucky.
In ‘Writ’ the narrator is having a conversation with her 14 year old self. Her real-live teenage self, sitting there in her home.
‘Fidelio and Bess’ is about an opera and went WAY over my head.
My favourites were ‘No Exit’, in which the narrator calls their ex to discuss a memory of a cinema with a fire door that led to nowhere, and ‘True Short Story’, in which the author overhears 2 men discussing the merits of short stories versus novels, and in which the author discusses the availability on the NHS of a cancer drug that her friend Kasia needs.
Smith is unquestionably a talented writer, but other than knowing that she is skilled and intelligent, once I have read the stories I am left with almost no lasting impression of them. There are the stories ‘The Third Person’, ‘The Second Person’, and ‘The First Person’, none of which I can remember anything about besides that they just feel very self-referential and therefore quite self-indulgent to me.
I think this will be my last reading of Smith’s work, which is disappointing. I’m torn between 2 and 3 stars but for the writing it gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
With this collection, while the writing is excellent, it’s all just a bit strange.
In ‘The Child’ the narrator returns to her shopping trolley to discover an unknown baby sitting in it. Nobody in the supermarket owns the baby, everyone insists it is hers, so she eventually ends up taking it away in her car. And then the baby starts talking (“And as for gay weddings. Don't make me laugh”) and swearing at her, which I found incredibly creepy - I kept picturing Chucky.
In ‘Writ’ the narrator is having a conversation with her 14 year old self. Her real-live teenage self, sitting there in her home.
‘Fidelio and Bess’ is about an opera and went WAY over my head.
My favourites were ‘No Exit’, in which the narrator calls their ex to discuss a memory of a cinema with a fire door that led to nowhere, and ‘True Short Story’, in which the author overhears 2 men discussing the merits of short stories versus novels, and in which the author discusses the availability on the NHS of a cancer drug that her friend Kasia needs.
Smith is unquestionably a talented writer, but other than knowing that she is skilled and intelligent, once I have read the stories I am left with almost no lasting impression of them. There are the stories ‘The Third Person’, ‘The Second Person’, and ‘The First Person’, none of which I can remember anything about besides that they just feel very self-referential and therefore quite self-indulgent to me.
I think this will be my last reading of Smith’s work, which is disappointing. I’m torn between 2 and 3 stars but for the writing it gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5