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Reader Reviews | |
Review by Ben Macnair (300415) Rating (7/10) Review
by Ben Macnair Something much bigger. Miles has had enough, so during an uneventful meal at the house of a mutual friend he locks himself in their spare room. And stays there, for two weeks, until the house owners have had enough of feeding him with ham through the door, and call in a friend. That Friend is Anna, who doesn’t really know Miles. Thirty years ago they met on a student exchange trip, for two weeks, and have not seen each other since. It is from this premise that the story grows and develops. Anna is at a cross-roads, her life is not going in the direction she would have liked, and when she meets Brook, the precocious daughter of a neighbour, it will have an impact over her life, and the lives of a lot of people around her. There but for the continues Ali Smith’s practice of writing character based drama, where the character informs the plot, rather than the other way around, so that although the novel contains a lot of people and character, they all play a part, however small in pushing the story along. The world being what it is, with rolling news, and social media, it is not long before the ripple effects of Miles can be seen and felt. This is a fine read, and would be recommended to Ali Smith’s many existing fans, and also anyone who discovered the writer through her recent booker prize nominated
How to Be Both. |
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