Public library and other stories

That's the beauty of Ali Smith; if you are looking for continuity in the development of her collection of short stories, you may be disappointed. First of all, each story deals with themes such as love, loss, politics, individuality, separated by small interviews on how the passion for reading, books and public libraries have made changes in the lives of some people, and still represent a common place where to feel free and out of this world."I went to the library. (...) It was a habit, a ritual. You borrowed it (book), you read it, you brought it back and chose something else, and someone else read whatever you read after and before you. It was communal."Ali's writing is witty, provocative, controversial. I enjoyed some of the short stories, others were completely off topic and I couldn't find them interesting enough; overall Public Library and Other Stories gets a 3.5 rating.

This book is an ode to public libraries. This collection of short stories cannot be defined strictly as a work of fiction. Many of the stories read autobiographical or at least semi-autobiographical. All of these stories don't go anywhere. There is practically no plot. Most can be described as a lengthy scene from a movie.The highlight of this collection is short essays, letters and anecdotes preceding every story. They are all related to public libraries and all are either amusing or depressing.Overall, this collection is a quick read and good introduction to works of Ali Smith. Everyone, who loves libraries, should read it.

Ali Smith is miraculous- and this is another example of her talent and great heart and mind.

Ali Smith's 'Public Library and Other Stories' is a collection of short stories interspersed with brief essays written by writers and friends of Ms Smith's on the importance of the library service. As an ode to the Public Library this little book works well and Ms Smith's semi-autobiographical short stories make this an even more interesting read. It is true that, as with many short story collections, there are definitely those here that are better than others - my particular favourite was 'The Ex-Wife' which focuses on a woman who is jealous of her lover's obsession with the writer Katherine Mansfield and of how, through her lack of understanding about her lover's preoccupation with Miss Mansfield, their relationship suffers. I also enjoyed 'The Definite Article' in which we meet a woman who risks making herself late for an important meeting by paying an impromptu visit to a London park, where she feels the benefit of taking the timeout to stop and stare. I also liked 'Grass' where a child tries to buy an electrical appliance with the wild flowers he has collected and is surprised when the young woman in the shop refuses him, a decision the woman later has cause to ponder upon. And the story entitled 'The Human Claim' where the author muses upon what might really have happened to D.H. Lawrence's ashes whilst she carries on a lengthy dispute with a credit company who have charged her for a flight she never took, was an entertaining one. It is true, as commented earlier, that I found some of these stories better than others and some lingered in the mind longer than others, but they were all worth reading and I applaud Ms Smith for her advocation of public libraries and for highlighting the marvellous resource they are - especially for those who may not be in the position to buy the books they'd like to read or who cannot afford access to the internet. And this collection is not solely an homage to public libraries but also reminds us of the significance of books and of the joys of reading. So, all in all, a worthwhile and interesting reading experience and a very good one for dipping in and out of.4 Stars.

Public Library is sold as a collection of stories. To this reader, at least, it felt more like a collection of essays. That is, there seemed to be little fictional drive. The broad format seems to be:I was doing A.I found B.This reminded me of C.I continued doing A.The essays all seem to have some kind of booky or literary angle that sometimes feels rather contrived. And in between each story/essay, there is a passage in italics, usually quoting famous people offering a personal reflection on their erstwhile use of public libraries. This often, but not always, involves the formative experience of progressing from the children’s library to the adult one. It’s fair enough, I remember the experience myself, but it’s not necessarily something I want to pay money to read.As for the essays themselves, there is little warmth to them. The voice is flat and the first person narrator is generally (a possibly fictional representation of) Ali Smith. So, for example, we have Ali Smith keeping shop in her father’s independent electrical store in Inverness; or we have Ali Smith querying a credit card bill, or Ali Smith on a train. The playfulness of her earlier novels; the wit of her earlier stories is missing. Reading the collection is a pretty joyless experience – which is a shame when its purpose seems to be to celebrate the concept of the public library.At the end, there’s little that was memorable. If I am honest, it’s really only the preamble where Ali Smith and a companion walk past a club in London called Library and go in asking for books. It’s a bit of a cheap gag – and it would have been obvious from the pavement that the building was a club and not a real library – but it did create a single image of humour from the contrived misunderstanding.My top tip would be to go back into Ali Smith’s back catalogue, but leave this collection on the library shelf. For me, at least, it was a project that didn’t work.