Like

A wonderful, meandering stream of prose that captures life in all of its intricacies - from the observations of the seemingly mundane details of day-to-day life, as seen through the eyes of a young girl, to the dangerous obsessions of a young woman in love.Whilst some people may have issues with the apparent loose ends in the narrative, to me, this serves to make the book more poignant and meaningful. As with the relationships of the characters in the book; life isn't perfect and is full of unresolved stories and significances that can only be half guessed at. There is no single version of events and our memories are flawed. This is no more true than in the interactions between two people, where each person brings different histories, prejudices and expectations to the party.I am a fan of The Accidental but found There But For The, also by Ali Smith, harder work. This book had me hooked, however, particularly in the second half when the story of Ash held a light to some (although not all) of the events in the first half of the book, whilst brilliantly depicting the beauty and vulnerability of childhood and adolescence.Reminds me very much of A Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes for the lack of, what might be considered, a comprehensive and traditional ending but therein lies the beauty of this book.

So inspiring, fresh, thought provoking.Written in an exciting unique way. It touched my emotions right to the last word.

This is my second copy. I gave up the first time when the POV changes half-way through; I didn't get on with the second character. Now, having read How to be Both, which employs the same device, I was ready for Like. I'm a big fan of Ali Smith, I have re-read Hotel World and The Accidental several times. I didn't enjoy Like as much. That said, I'm growing to love it.

This book is beautifully written and fascinating throughout, However... it doesn't have a cohesive story. It turns out not to be about what you think it is and becomes something else half way through. The mystery you think will be cleared up just isn't. I enjoyed reading it but was a little disappointed because I think it could have been better!

Ali Smith is a writer for our times, for all of us.

Ali Smith's first (and to my view her best) novel is really two linked novellas. In Part I, we meet Amy, a mysterious single mother living in a caravan in Scotland, and Amy's eight-year-old daughter Kate. Due - as we soon realize - to some strange mental breakdown, Amy is unable to read, and relies on Kate to do any reading needed for her. Suddenly, and mysteriously, the ability to read begins to come back to her, and she makes the decision to take Kate to meet her parents, and then to take her on holiday to Italy, staying near Pompei. Gradually, we learn a bit about Amy's life; that she was once an academic, that she is very frightened of a former friend named Aisling McCarthy, and that Kate may or may not have been a stolen baby and not Amy's child. Smith tells this part of the story in the third person, partly from Amy's point of view and partly from Kate's. She enters into the world of the eight-year-old child absolutely wonderfully - Kate's one of the very few children in modern fiction I've really identified with; and Amy is also a powerfully created character. There are amazing descriptions of train journeys, Amy's family's house, Italy and even life in chilly Northern Scotland.The second part of the novel initially seems almost unconnected to the first, and is told from the point of view of Ash (Aisling - the Aisling McCarthy mentioned in Part I as we learn). Ash, an actress, is visiting Scotland before going to Hollywood to make a film. She remembers her past, starting with her teenage years, when when she was living in Inverness with her brothers and widower father. Ash meets Amy one summer and they become friends. A couple of years later, having officially come out as bisexual (and lost quite a bit of popularity in her own town as a result) and had an affair with a teacher, Ash receives a card from Amy and on a whim heads to Cambridge, where Amy is now a student. The bulk of Part II describes Ash and Amy's on-off friendship/relationship (though I'm not sure they ever sleep together) over the years in Cambridge as Amy moves from being a student to being a don, Ash's affairs with other men and women, particularly a playwright called Simone, and how the relationship ended. The final section has Ash, about to go to America, meditating on her life and what the future might hold.This section also has some truly wonderful writing - brilliant descriptions of Cambridge and Scotland, and of hopeless passion, some vivid and likeable characters such as Simone and Carmen, and interesting thoughts on lesbianism and bisexuality. Ash is a compelling and likeable narrator, and, having been to Cambridge myself, I felt she brought the city and the university in all its charm and snobbism wonderfully to life.However, the book left me feeling slightly 'hungry' at the end. I didn't quite believe the melodrama of Ash's taking her revenge on Amy - this was the point where I began to wonder what was real and what was Ash's fantasy. And I'd have loved to have known what really happened between Amy and Ash in the end, what caused Amy's breakdown and if she ever returned to academic life, whether Ash died or where she disappeared to, if Kate was her child and - as another reviewer has noted - what happened to Kate? I don't know if Smith was ever planning a sequel or if she wanted to leave things for the reader to carry on inventing (a la Angela Carter) but I felt that there were a few too many unsolved mysteries as I ended the book. Still - five stars for the most incredible writing and sensitive handling of characters.