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4 out of 5
by
Anne
from
Columbus, OH | Feb 27, 2009
This was my first Ali Smith book, and now I see what all the fuss has been about. If you admire Cate Kennedy, Lydia Davis, Miranda July, and/or Kevin Brockmeier, Smith shares something with all of these writers--but first and foremost, she rocks a style all her own. She writes with a fierce, intelligent delight, and her stories are whimsical yet urgent; they move at a clip, then suddenly slow you down. Smith has that rare gift for literalizing metaphors (like sitting down with your 14-year-old self) without dismantling them.
Many of the stories in this collection are, to some extent, about writing itself, but even more they are about the life being lived in and for stories--for instance how point of view (be it the second person, the first person, or the third person, etc.) is the art of perceiving ourselves, our loved ones, and those we observe as well as invent. Smith plays with the fact that names for various POVs have additional meanings -- the first person who made you feel a certain way, for instance.
Throughout, the author never lets us forget that we are reading stories, but she never makes us doubt that they are, in the best sense, true.
1 people found this review helpful
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4 out of 5
by
Ashleigh
from
Norwich, The United Kingdom | Jun 13, 2010
True Short Story
I really loved this. It was short, believable and poignant. I loved the link with the Echo/Narcissus myth - it's one of my favourite of the Greek myths and I loved the relevance it had to the story overall. I really loved the last few lines: "So when is a short story like a nymph? When the echo of it answers back." I really loved that. 5/5
The Child
I loved the humour in this one! So funny. For all the wrong reasons of course but you know, sometimes the wrong reasons are the reason you laugh. I loved how utterly crazy the woman seemed. I would have done the same thing to that baby if it were me! Loved the surrealism - but sometimes it can be a bit too crazy 4/5
Present
I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I liked how the characters mind wandered in the car, how it said what could happen, what she thought would happen. I liked the flow in general in this one. I loved the stories within the story. It was a nice, calm story and I enjoyed it. 4/5
The Third Person
I started off enjoying this. Then it got jumpy and there were so many things going on I couldn't focus. It was good, don't get me wrong, but doesn't have the same flow or spark that the previous stories had. 3/5
Fidelo & Bess
Gah. I have epic amounts of love for Ali Smith right now. Uber amounts. Her writing is just so utterly perfect. I loved the intermingling of the play/opera and the story itself. I loved how it just flowed together like the sea meets sand. It was just utterly beautiful. 5/5
The History of History
Once again an amazing story. It was short, simple but really witty. I loved it soverymuch. But I've loved everything so far soverymuch. I loved the incorporation of Mary Queen of Scots and the article. I loved the dog. I just loved it. 5/5
No Exit
I really liked this one. I particularly loved the story within the story again - I think Smith is very good at that. And while it was entertaining, you could also feel the desperation of the poor woman. I like how Smith gets the funny with the emotions and leaves you to often tie up the ends yourself. 4/5
The Second Person
I felt there was something missing in this one. I don't know what but there just was. Which makes me sad because other than that missing something it was beautiful. I loved the use of music throughout. The flow was there, I felt, but something else wasn't 3/5
I Know Something You Don't Know
Particularly beautiful. I think the whole Alternative-Medicine thing is something so few writers find entertainment in, or at least have balls to do so, so Smith is awesome for just that. But haha. Oh dear. I loved the utter craziness of this one - it was pleasant and funny, and though touching it was utterly hilarious too. 4/5
Writ
Utterly beautiful. It was simple, not overly jumpy and not an awful lot happened. But it was beautiful. You don't need action or even much interesting to make a great story. A simple, yet beautiful, plot with a few just as beautiful words put together is more than satisfactory. It was perfect. My favourite story in the collection, by far! 5/5
Astute Fiery Luxurious
I change my mind. This is my favourite story. It felt almost like two stories, but they blended together so well. The flow and the feel and actually, the general plots of it were so well blended together... Gah. I love Ali Smith. 5/5
The First Person
Okay, so this story I feel was good, but lost it's flow somewhere in the middle (that might just be because I had to put it down to eat) but on the whole it was good. U particularly loved the end of it the whole "You're the first person..." stuff. It was adorable & the perfect way to tie a great book up. 4/5
The average for this book works out oat 4.25 stars. I won't round up, beacuse even though it was amazing there were a few flaws, but that could be because I was stop-start & being interrupted. I loved it however. Another fantastic collection from Ali Smith.
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4 out of 5
by
Teresa
from
Kenner, LA | Jan 1, 2010
I love Ali Smith's stories. They are inventive, fun, generous, open, insightful, thought-provoking ... I could go on and on. I'd read three of these online before, and they were a pleasure to read again.
The first five stories of the collection are very strong (so are a couple of the later ones) and my favorite has to be "Fidelio and Bess," a story that interweaves the story of a present-day couple with the story in Beethoven's only opera and the story in the Gershwin opera to great effect; I thought about it for days. Even the stories that are not as strong as the others had lovely endings and AS's trademark way of looking at 'old' things with a new, fresh outlook. (See the ending of the last story, "The first person," as an example of this.)
A quote from the last story characterizes much of AS for me: "It [a TV story:] had sacrificed its girl character to a horrible end for the sake of a neat story; I had been arguing with the neatness and foulness and cynicism of it in my head all night. I had woken up still trying to think of alternative endings for the girl in the story, still granting her character a more open road, a kinder shape of things.'
3 people found this review helpful
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2 out of 5
by
Eric
from
The United States | Apr 16, 2010
I really need to strain to come up with anything to say about the stories I read from this collection - I claim to have gotten the idea about half-way through. I was with this collection of stories during a painfully prolonged film screening and discussion of a 14th-century novel-turned-film and thus I trudged along. In normal circumstances, I would not bother reading much further than the first story that turns from a woman eavesdropping on a father-and-son conversation about short stories. The woman then phones a friend and gets her take on the state of the story. The story ends with a Shieldsian run of authors discussing the medium. I just couldn't find much weight to the second story about a smart-mouthed baby who appears in a woman's shopping cart to the adoring gaze of all but the unsuspecting shopping woman. Some story about a bar where our protagonist fights through the anguish to get back inside a dreary bar on Christas night where a barmaid and her suitor fight. I wasn't very moved by the next few stories.
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3 out of 5
by
Derek
from
Holland, MI | Feb 8, 2010
Ali Smith's world is at times bleak and lonely, at times rich and full, but in all cases a different take on life than we usually see. Smith has garnered a strong following in her short career, and this new Anchor books edition of The First Person and Other Stories solidifies the fact that she is a voice we will continue to hear from. Whether this book will be the one recommended to new readers of her work is another question.
Smith plays with the short story form, at times unsuccessfully. Her opening story, "True Short Story," is what the title says -- a true short story. The narrator overhears two men, possibly father and son, discussing literature. Their thinking drives the narrator to talk to her literary friend, battling cancer, to discuss if the short story is truly a slim nymph as described by the younger of the two men. But the story sounds more like a memoir than a short story, which is ironic since the story is a celebration of the short story.
But when she succeeds Smith proves she is worth the patience. "The Child" features a foul-mouthed, talking baby who simply shows up in the narrator's shopping cart one day. Despite her resistance to what is perhaps things to come, she finds herself drawn into caring for the sexist, racist, angelic-looking child. But in the end she finds another way to solve her problem.
While "The Child" features resolution, Smith is comfortable not finishing the story. Many of the selections show us the modern "slice-of-life" snippets, but they are not without future direction. Smith differs from many contemporary writers in that some of the stories have hope built in them as well. In "The Second Person" we watch a couple fight their way into separation, but in the end an accordion and its missing mate indicate a renewal of the relationship.
The eponymous final story is a touching love story in which one of the characters works hard to convince herself that her new relationship is nothing special. Her lover is not discouraged.
"You're not the first person who ever made me feel like this, you know, I say.
I'm the first person today, though, you say."
The passage is indicative of Smith's thinking, a focus on living in the present. It also shows hers fondness for quoting her characters with "I say -- you say -- he said -- she said" phrases as opposed to direct quotes. At times it can be confusing on who is speaking, but Smith is likely intentional here. She also often leaves genders, especially in relationships, unspoken. How the reader interprets these stories may say as much about them as Smith.
Overall we see Smith experimenting with the short story form, and like most experiments there are both failures and successes. But like most experiments, they are worth the effort.