- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd; 1st Edition edition (24 April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0241141109
- ISBN-13: 978-0241141106
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.2 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,053,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Ali Smith has got style, ideas and punch. Read her." --Jeanette Winterson
"One of Britain's major talents. . . . Startlingly accomplished." --"The Atlantic Monthly
""A joy to read." --"Sunday Times "(London)
"Smith is a gifted and meticulous architect of character and voice." --"The Washington Post
""She's street-savvy and poignant at once. . . . There's a kind of stainless steel clarity at the center of her fiction." --"The Boston Globe
""Smith proves herself an experimental writer even your mother could love." --"Elle
" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"One of Britain's major talents. . . . Startlingly accomplished." --"The Atlantic Monthly
""A joy to read." --"Sunday Times "(London)
"Smith is a gifted and meticulous architect of character and voice." --"The Washington Post
""She's street-savvy and poignant at once. . . . There's a kind of stainless steel clarity at the center of her fiction." --"The Boston Globe
""Smith proves herself an experimental writer even your mother could love." --"Elle
" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Product Description
A brilliant collection of new short stories by the Booker and Orange prize shortlisted author of HOTEL WORLD. Stories for people who've grown up being told time is running out - and don't want it to...How do you ever know the whole story? How do you ever know even part of the story? How do you find meaning when chance and coincidence could, after all, just be chance and coincidence? In a celebration of connections and missed connections, an inquiry into everything from flies and trees and books to sex, art, drunkenness and love, Smith rewrites the year's cycle into a very modern calendar.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Another collection by Ali Smith full of good stories, but some better than others. I preferred this collection to 'Other Stories and Other Stories' as a whole, but still felt that some of the warmth and depth of character of 'Free Love' was still not there. The tone of many of the stories was slightly surreal and quirky - sometimes this worked brilliantly, as in the opening story, about the man trying to build a boat out of copies of 'The Great Gatsby', or the story about the woman who believes she encounters Death at King's Cross, and then decides to walk from Letchworth to Cambridge when her train gets stuck (bizarrely, I'm convinced I was on the train that Smith is talking about, back in 2001!). At other times, the surrealism seems a little self-conscious, as in the tale of the woman who falls in love with a tree (and digs up the living room floor, planning to steal it and plant it there) or 'Scottish Love Songs', in which a ghostly pipe band pursue first an old woman and then a young girl. In a way, I think Smith is at her strongest when really working at observing individuals - the three sisters in 'Paradise', the woman remembering her childhood in 'The Book Club', and the woman roaming an art gallery in 'The Shortlist Season'. I prefer this to the more wacky stories - but then, this is a personal preference.
On the whole, an excellent collection, which I'd give 4.5 stars too if the option was there.
On the whole, an excellent collection, which I'd give 4.5 stars too if the option was there.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Of the twelve stories in this book the ones that stand out are without a doubt "may" and "erosive." The former is a story of someone who falls in love with a tree ("I couldn't not. It was in blossom"). The story manages to be amusing and touching at the same time. Despite it being a bizarre idea it is done really well, and I though the ending was quite sad, it is written from the perspective of the neglected lover. "Erosive" is my favourite story of the book. It's short, and has a titled beginning, middle and end, with the Beginning written last. It's a love story but it's is done without any sentimentality, it is really fresh and pure. Certain lines are really striking such as "look at me now, here I am at the beginning, the middle and the end all at once…and behind it all, dull as a blown-out lightbulb, the fact of the word never."
The other 10 stories don't live up to the same standard in my opinion. With the exceptions of "believe me" and "the start of things" they don't seem to have the same simple yet striking emotion. Several of the stories are written in two sections, from the perspectives of each half of a couple, and you can't tell who is male or female which is interesting but slightly irritating, though you can just about work it out from the final story. Overall the book is fresh, quirky, amusing, touching in places, and though a bit hit-and-miss I would buy it if only for the stories mentioned above.
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a great book. Ali Smith has the purest prose voice I could imagine - she couldn't be less pretentious, and a lot of the time she makes writing well seem incredibly easy - but there is a lot going on here, her seeming transparency doesn't mean anything is that simple. These stories really make you think. Everything they look at becomes real. Everyday activities we more or less ignore are described with enough love that their peculiarity - which is sometimes funny, sometimes disturbing, sometimes both - becomes apparent. I thought _Hotel World_ was a little gimmicky compared to her previous short stories and novel; this book is a return to form and, I suspect, to what she really wanted to do in the first place. And if reading and liking _Hotel World_ encourages people to read these, it's well worth it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Another brilliant collection from Ali Smith
Ali Smith is the best writer I have ever come across. She is like no other.
The Whole Story and Other Stories is a great collection of stories. Read more
The Whole Story and Other Stories is a great collection of stories. Read more
Published on 18 July 2009 by R. Matthews
One molecule said yes to another.....
This book is perfect for some people, but terrible for others! Its a set of short stories dealing with love, not always love of a person, sometimes love of a creature, a tree, and... Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2005 by aceadrian
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