Book Review
Or rather than a review, a collection of my thoughts on a novel that was on my TBR from when it was released and appeared all over my Instagram feed. I want to make it clear at this point that I will do my best to avoid spoilers, however this will be a discussion of the book that I hope will encourage further comments from those who have already read it, and will also to encourage you to put this on your TBR if you have not read it.
Smith manages to create a somewhat linear story, while destroying the concept of linearity. In my final year of university, I wrote an essay on the many ways Ali Smith and Virginia Woolf are similar, and I think this is another book which further proves my point. If you're familiar with Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, then you'll see where I'm going with this. In her novel, Woolf makes the past present by seamlessly blending past and present together. You're reading a moment set in the present, when suddenly a flashback of the same character is thrown in, and then a few pages later, the narrative continues from where it was in the present. Smith repeatedly does a similar thing, which you can also see in How To Be Both.
The story starts from Sophia's point of view, and is set at Christmas time. Smith has a very particular writing style, and so if you're not familiar with her, it does take a few pages till you adapt and pick up the flow of her words. Without going into too much detail, at the start of the story, there seems to be a floating head. It's unclear if only she can see it, however it is very prominent at the beginning of the story, and then the head seems to fade away. It definitely carries some symbolism. I feel it is there for something that Sophia's character lacks, or seems to want.
A few pages later, you're introduced to Art. Art is different from Sophia, and possibly quite similar at the same time. When we meet him, he seems to be going through a rather awkward break up with his girlfriend, Charlotte, and his personal blog seems to be brought into question.
Despite the story being set around the days before and after Christmas, there are a number of flashbacks to previous years that are not all from the same season. These flashbacks melt into the narrative, and it's only once you're significantly into the novel that these jarring fragments come to make sense and make the novel a very whole piece. And what starts off as a rather dysfunctional family Christmas, becomes something more united as the novel progresses.
The book as a whole is incredibly thought provoking. One of the tropes of the flashbacks is current affairs. Smith makes past affairs, especially those of the Post War and Cold War era, relevant to the contemporary; and so introduces another trope: history. Both familial and political history come to be central in the novel, as pointed out by Lux towards the end. She also weaves in Donald Trump and Brexit, making the very recent and climactic events of the past year and half, part of her narrative. She destroys the boundaries of time, because the past and the present are constantly linked. This was something that I found incredibly satisfying in the novel. The way Smith makes those connections so effortlessly, making you go "Aaaah" aloud, while reading.
You will find that this novel is intelligent, it is timely, it is engaging in all the right ways. It may not fit everyone's style, but I nonetheless recommend you put this on your TBR and give it go.
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