Rev: Public Library and Other Stories

2017.06.15

book review: Public Library and Other Stories, by Ali Smith

ali smith is forever beautifully clever, informal prose. shows here definitely, but short stories lend themselves less to her poeticisms. her writing yields reduced density, which in novel form means a gradual, natural, zero-effort getting-to-know. here, though, we move too quickly on, and characters and settings blend together, still poetic but less alive and themselves. and because of that (and the selection for common themes) there’s a bit of empty feeling here.

definitely worth a read, but start with her other works and take this as a casual lunch break filler, one story at a time