A review by estherdb
How to Be Both by Ali Smith
5.0
Wow, just wow.
My book started with Francesco's part, but in hindsight I think I should've started with George's, because I think many elements would make more sense if you read them in that order. (E.g. the anachronisms - which confounded me at first - or the "boy" standing in front of Francesco's paintings, etc.) In addition, I have to admit that it took me some 20 pages to get into this book. I literally thought: "Oh no, not one of these weird stream-of-consciousness novels again." However, I can honestly say that it then hooked me and I could hardly put it down afterwards. There was just something in there that took me along with the stream and made me want to ride it forever. I am immensely happy that I persisted because it turned out to be one of the best books I've read so far. The novel turned me - a stubborn sceptic - into a believer, which, trust me, few books can (usually, I either like it from the start or I hate it). The writing is savvy and clever, and the interwoven plots are simply genius.
- Male - female: George/Georgia, Francesco del Cossa
- Real - imagined: is George's mom really spied upon? Is Francesco truly a spirit following George or did George imagine him and filled in his/her storyline as a sympathy/empathy experiment? (Some elements, like the origin of St. Vincent Ferrer, Francesco's mother also having died young, the sympathy/empathy school project, or George and her mother wondering about the painter's sex, etc. really made me question whether or not Francesco's part - whose narrative I enjoyed immensely - was ever "real" at all.)
- Past - present: is the past relevant? How does the past affect the present?
- Dead - alive: is there such a thing as being a "spirit"? Can you be both alive and dead? (I also loved how mourning was portrayed, as a sort of being dead and closed up from the outside world, yet still living in it.)
- Seeing and Seen: George and the girl in the porn film, George's mother and Lisa, Francesco and his/her paintings, Francesco and Barto... [A topic which is especially relevant in our modern society, where we are constantly "minotaured" and monitored, and where we are constantly looking at others. Either in real life/in the flesh or on a screen.]
- Loving and loved: George and Helena, George and her mother/father (I loved Smith's portrayal of a family that argues a lot and definitely isn't perfectly getting along, because many families are like that without it meaning that you don't love each other), George's mother and Lisa, Francesco and his father/mother, and so many others.
- etc.
And yet, How to Be Both teaches us that it simply doesn't matter. You do not have to think in binary oppositions: people's identities, behaviour and relationships are all sorts of in between. [Which was cleverly symbolised by Helena's being from North, East, South ànd West.] Every element in this novel is connected, just like everything is in the real world.
This book was an overwhelming mindfuck, but in a good way. I loved how Smith intertwined the past and the present. The multiplicity that's lurking around every phrase in this novel just makes for such a rich and beautiful whole. Smith doesn't pin her readers down on one interpretation, we are free to look at her work from different points of view. I both enjoy the idea of Francesco somehow being connected to George and looking over her as a spirit, yet I also really like the hypothesis of Francesco's narrative being a creation of a sixteen-year-old who's imagining the life of a painter who lived 500 years ago.
My book started with Francesco's part, but in hindsight I think I should've started with George's, because I think many elements would make more sense if you read them in that order. (E.g. the anachronisms - which confounded me at first - or the "boy" standing in front of Francesco's paintings, etc.) In addition, I have to admit that it took me some 20 pages to get into this book. I literally thought: "Oh no, not one of these weird stream-of-consciousness novels again." However, I can honestly say that it then hooked me and I could hardly put it down afterwards. There was just something in there that took me along with the stream and made me want to ride it forever. I am immensely happy that I persisted because it turned out to be one of the best books I've read so far. The novel turned me - a stubborn sceptic - into a believer, which, trust me, few books can (usually, I either like it from the start or I hate it). The writing is savvy and clever, and the interwoven plots are simply genius.
Spoiler
How to be both...- Male - female: George/Georgia, Francesco del Cossa
- Real - imagined: is George's mom really spied upon? Is Francesco truly a spirit following George or did George imagine him and filled in his/her storyline as a sympathy/empathy experiment? (Some elements, like the origin of St. Vincent Ferrer, Francesco's mother also having died young, the sympathy/empathy school project, or George and her mother wondering about the painter's sex, etc. really made me question whether or not Francesco's part - whose narrative I enjoyed immensely - was ever "real" at all.)
- Past - present: is the past relevant? How does the past affect the present?
- Dead - alive: is there such a thing as being a "spirit"? Can you be both alive and dead? (I also loved how mourning was portrayed, as a sort of being dead and closed up from the outside world, yet still living in it.)
- Seeing and Seen: George and the girl in the porn film, George's mother and Lisa, Francesco and his/her paintings, Francesco and Barto... [A topic which is especially relevant in our modern society, where we are constantly "minotaured" and monitored, and where we are constantly looking at others. Either in real life/in the flesh or on a screen.]
- Loving and loved: George and Helena, George and her mother/father (I loved Smith's portrayal of a family that argues a lot and definitely isn't perfectly getting along, because many families are like that without it meaning that you don't love each other), George's mother and Lisa, Francesco and his father/mother, and so many others.
- etc.
And yet, How to Be Both teaches us that it simply doesn't matter. You do not have to think in binary oppositions: people's identities, behaviour and relationships are all sorts of in between. [Which was cleverly symbolised by Helena's being from North, East, South ànd West.] Every element in this novel is connected, just like everything is in the real world.
This book was an overwhelming mindfuck, but in a good way. I loved how Smith intertwined the past and the present. The multiplicity that's lurking around every phrase in this novel just makes for such a rich and beautiful whole. Smith doesn't pin her readers down on one interpretation, we are free to look at her work from different points of view. I both enjoy the idea of Francesco somehow being connected to George and looking over her as a spirit, yet I also really like the hypothesis of Francesco's narrative being a creation of a sixteen-year-old who's imagining the life of a painter who lived 500 years ago.