Artful

Artful presents in book form four lectures given by Ali Smith at Oxford UniversityRefusing to be tied down to either fiction or the essay form Artful is narrated by a character who is haunted - literally - by a former lover the writer of a series of lectures about art and literature Full of both the poignancy and humour of fiction and all the sideways insights and jaunty angles you would expect from Ali Smith's criticism it explores form style life love death mortality immortality and what art and writing can meanPart fiction part essay Artful is a revelation of what writing can do and a reaffirmation of Ali Smith's unmatched literary powers'Playful full of insight and humanity constantly surprising another genuine attempt to bust open the boundaries of literary form' Jonathan Coe
Metro'Joyful and optimistic Will be entertaining reading for anyone interested in the art of writing also of living well' New Statesman'Glittering inventiveness Not just a ghost story but also a love letter As emotionally freighted as a piece of storytelling as intellectually rigorous as an academic's essay' Independent'An insight into an author who is in love with books invention and words in all their depth and shiny surface' Herald 'A revelation a new kind of book altogether a book that defies categorisation and leaps out of every box anyone could try and put it in; a book that marries fiction to nonfiction literary criticism to essays; a book that is as serious as it is witty as light as it is enlightening Artful makes you glad to be alive' Observer Books of the Year'One of the
marvelous things about this book is its reconciliation of the serious - both in the form of this crumbling smelly guest and in its ardent advocacy of art - and light Smith whose love of words and skill at wordplay has already been made apparent in her stories and novels performs dodge after dodge after dodge what Smith has done with Artful is to invent a new form apart from form to build a kind of Frankenstein's monster inside the act of art' LA Review of Books 'Smith is a trickster an etymologist a fantasist a pun-freak an ontologist a transgenrenatrix A wordsmith to the very smithy of her soul she is at once deeply playful and deeply serious Artful in which she tugs at God's sleeve ruminates on clowns shoplifts used books dabbles in Greek and palavers with the dead is a stunner' New York
Times'These brief acrobatic lectures perform spectacular feats of criticism Each is as playful as it is powerful as buoyant as it is brilliant' NPR'Contemplative electrifying' Publishers Weekly