Friday's Forgotten Book: Other Stories and Other Stories - Ali Smith

Last week Sara tagged me in the Friday Forgotten Book blog. So,  today I have to post about a  forgotten book.

Which begs the question, forgotten by whom exactly? I certainly haven't forgotten about Other Stories and Other Stories by Ali Smith, and I douby many other Ali Smith fans have either. So, perhaps this book isn't so much forgotten as sadly neglacted in the face of her more famous recent novels.

However, Other Stories and Other Stories is a wonderful collection of, er, stories. In fact, it is where I got the name of this 'ere blog from. Also, in another weird reading link, the quote at the front of the book is from Grace Paley, whose collected stories I am dipping into just now:

"Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life."

The "open destiny of life" is exactly what Ali Smith always bestows her characters, and is part of what I loved so much about Girl Meets Boy a couple of months ago. She is generous to them, fills them with feelings and quirks and emotions that just pour off the page. There is 'Kasia's Mother's Mother's Story' about a devout Catholic women, oppressed by too many children and too little food, scavanging for spiritual comfort. There is 'Small Deaths', which is about a flea infestation. Only Ali Smith could write a really great little story about a house with a flea infestation. There is 'The Hanging Girl', which is chillingly spooky, about a girl, hanged and haunting another girls many years on. Except, is it really a ghost, or is it really a psychological blip?

As ever, though, Ali Smith is at her best when writing about love. I have never read another writer who puts love and its exaltations and fears into words quite so perfectly. The last story in the collection - and such a fitting end to the book - is called, simply, 'A Story of Love':

"Goodnight, we said, like every night, and you longingly hopelessly happily fearfully selfishly loyally temptingly knowingly passionately lovingly wordlessly kissed me

and I kissed you all of it back
goodnight."

And now it is my turn to tag another blogger to tell us all about a forgotten book next Friday. Dovegrey Reader - I hand the baton on to you.

Comments

[Patti Abbott]

Thanks so much Kirsty. Hope someone else picks up the baton for next week.

[Sandra Scoppettone]

I think the title is The Whole Story and Other Stories.

[Kirsty]

No Sandra, that's a different collection.

[sara]

Thanks Kirsty, what a lovely choice, one that I can wholeheartedly endorse!

Sandra her short story collections are :
The Whole Story and Other Stories (2003)
Other Stories and Other Stories (1999)
Free Love and Other Stories (1995)

Keen on her "other stories"!