Name: There But for The
Rating: 3.785714285714286 (14 reviews)
ISBN: 9780241143407

Ali Smith

There But for The

When Miles Garth locks himself in an upstairs room during a dinner party and communicates only through notes slipped under the door, his involuntary hosts beg help from childhood friend Anna, who is unwittingly thrust into the family's surreal world. By the Whitbread Award-winning author of The Accidental.

There But For The

Trever

(4.5) I liked this the whole way through but the only section I'd give five stars was the the last, "the", about Brooke. I really liked her as a character and her section was the most well-crafted of the four. That's not to discount the others, but I found it painful just reading the dinner party and the hospital section was quite disorienting.

It's quite interesting how Smith works here and in all her novels: she is firmly in a tradition beyond post-modernism. She takes a lot of the pomo ideas but portrays them with more emotion than the postmodernists do (did?).

Imagine that this stranger goes upstairs halfway through the dinner party and locks himself in one of your bedrooms and won't come out. Imagine you can't move him for days, weeks, months. If ever. This is what Miles does, in a chi-chi house in the historic borough of Greenwich, in the year 2009-2010.

There But for the

Jade Flynn

I didn't find it as compelling as The Accidental so the jury is still out on Ali Smith for me, I'll give her one more try sometime in the future. Playful.

Hailed among the BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2011 by Jeanette Winterson, A.S. Byatt, Patrick Ness, Sebastian Barry, Boyd Tonkin, Erica Wagner... A sparkling satire from the MAN BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED and WOMEN'S PRIZE-WINNING author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet 'Playful, humorous, serious, profoundly clever and profoundly affecting' Guardian 'Adventurous, intoxicating, dazzling. This is a novel with serious ambitions that remains huge fun to read' Literary Review 'Smith can make anything happen, which is why she is one of our most exciting writers today' Daily Telegraph 'There once was a man who, one night between the main course and the sweet at a dinner party, went upstairs and locked himself in one of the bedrooms of the house of the people who were giving the dinner party . . .' As time passes by and the consequences of this stranger's actions ripple outwards, touching the owners, the guests, the neighbours and the whole country, so Ali Smith draws us into a beautiful, strange place where everyone is so much more than they first appear...

There but for the

Tiago Dias

Terrific idea, which starts lagging halfway through the book. Really enjoyed it, though.

There But for The

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