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Artful Hardcover – January 24, 2013
In February 2012, the novelist Ali Smith delivered the Weidenfeld lectures on European comparative literature at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. Her lectures took the shape of this set of discursive stories. Refusing 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.
A hypnotic dialogue unfolds, a duet between and a meditation on art and storytelling, a book about love, grief, memory, and revitalization. Smith’s heady powers as a fiction writer harmonize with her keen perceptions as a reader and critic to form a living thing that reminds us that life and art are never separate.
Artful is a book about the things art can do, the things art is full of, and the quicksilver nature of all artfulness. It glances off artists and writers from Michelangelo through Dickens, then all the way past postmodernity, exploring every form, from ancient cave painting to 1960s cinema musicals. This kaleidoscope opens up new, inventive, elastic insights—on the relation of aesthetic form to the human mind, the ways we build our minds from stories, the bridges art builds between us. Artful is a celebration of literature’s worth in and to the world and a meaningful contribution to that worth in itself. There has never been a book quite like it.
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Press
- Publication dateJanuary 24, 2013
- Dimensions6 x 1 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101594204861
- ISBN-13978-1594204869
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Review
—The New Yorker
"These brief, acrobatic lectures... perform spectacular feats of criticism. Each is as playful as it is powerful, as buoyant as it is brilliant."
—NPR Books
"A wordsmith to the very smithy of her soul, [Smith] is at once deeply playful and deeply serious. And her new book, 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 Book Review
"What a treat…. Artful is a love story full of everything - mind and body, past, present and future. The last lines of this wonderful book are spoken by the narrator: '(Who did I think I was talking to? You.)' Thank you, Ali Smith, from all of us."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"Smith dealt before with grief in relation to the passing of time in her 2001 novel, Hotel World. The clever structure on show in Artful allows her to expand on this theme and enables the reader to delve back in at random and be entranced all over again."
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Ms. Smith has an agile and mischievous mind. I will keep this book on my shelves forever, I suspect, for one line alone, a play on the song 'Smile,' made famous by Nat King Cole. (Charlie Chaplin wrote the music.) 'Simile,' Ms. Smith writes, 'though your heart is breaking.' If that doesn't make you happy you may be, like the writer in this book, dead... It's speckled with elegant allusion... It's a book with unusual nooks and crannies, a book that pulses with minor-chord heartache... What matters in both life and literature, this book suggests, is to keep trying to connect."
—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
"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."
—The Los Angeles Review of Books
"Artful is full of crossings and parallels. It is thought in 3-D. It is artful, which the book itself observes is the name given to the Oliver Twist character of the Dodger: the one who animates the story, who brings life to it."
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Contemplative, electrifying, and transformative....Through riveting reflections on the limitations and the limitlessness of stories, Smith considers four aspects of the endeavor of creation: on 'time, 'form,' 'edge,' and 'offer and reflection.' The results are redemptive for everyone, testifying with singular clarity and wit to the immutable necessity for art."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[An] extraordinary journey... Smith's storytelling facility and critical eye are evident in the fact that this ongoing conversation about time, memory, loss, longing, love, art and nature stirs the mind and heart all the more because it takes place between the imagination and reality. A soulful intellectual inquiry and reflection on life and art, artfully done."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Smith daringly splits herself into two captivating voices... This scintillating conversation showcases Smith’s own gifts as a creative writer. But it also reminds readers of how great literature—of Shakespeare, Lawrence, Hopkins, Ovid, Plath, Rilke, and Flaubert—requires them to reorient their line of vision. Nothing—Smith shows her reader—forces such reorientation more than violating conventional boundaries, often in dangerous ways. These most unlecture-like of lectures deliver the thrill of perilous border crossings."
—Booklist
"Smart, allusive, informal, playful, audacious. (It's true. I think I am in love with Ali Smith.) Artful is a gift from Ali Smith to her reader. It's a book no one else could have written, or would have. Smith has a critic's eye, but fills her book with the novelist's art, and the novelist's heart."
—Independent on Sunday
"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
"Smith's exuberance and cleverness delight. This is a sparky, inspiring, charm-laden little book that makes you want to read more and differently."
—The Week
"A wonderful achievement. Smith is so readable, likable, witty, and difficult to put down, that it makes you wonder why more people don't make use of her. She could make David Cameron interesting. Artful is a uniquely accessible work of criticism at the same time as it's a haunting fictional portrayal of grief, lost love and the power of art. Smith possesses rare levels of genius. She deserves to be read and discussed by every single person who has an interest in literature today."
—Bookmunch
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Press (January 24, 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1594204861
- ISBN-13 : 978-1594204869
- Item Weight : 15.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 1 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,785,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,232 in Essays (Books)
- #9,945 in Literary Movements & Periods
- #75,862 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Ali Smith CBE FRSL (born August 1962 in Inverness) is a Scottish writer.
She was born to working-class parents, raised in a council house in Inverness and now lives in Cambridge. She studied at the University of Aberdeen and then at Newnham College, Cambridge, for a PhD that she never finished. She worked as a lecturer at University of Strathclyde until she fell ill with CFS/ME. Following this she became a full-time writer and now writes for The Guardian, The Scotsman, and the Times Literary Supplement. Openly gay, she lives in Cambridge with her partner filmmaker Sarah Wood.
In 2007 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
In 2009, she donated the short story Last (previously published in the Manchester Review Online) to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Fire' collection.
Smith was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to literature.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers praise the book for its art direction, which extends reverence to the creative process. They find the emotional content poignant and compelling, with a journey through loss and grief. The book explores literature and philosophy in an engaging manner, combining poetry, essays, fiction, and criticism.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers appreciate the book's art direction. They find it uplifting and inspiring, with a reverence for the creative process. The author's erudition, inventiveness, and lyrical voice are also noted.
"...criticism, personal healing from grief, and it extends reverence to the creative process as salvation in itself, simply because the process provides..." Read more
"...Ali Smith’s fiction but with all the hallmarks of her erudition, wild inventiveness, lyrical voice...." Read more
"...through loss and grief, poetry, the visual arts, on a journey that entwines life and art. As Artful itself recommends, it is a book to be re-read...." Read more
"...She's a beautiful writer and following her brain as she pulls disparate poems and novels and essays about art and the act of creation is a joy." Read more
Customers find the book's emotional content poignant and compelling. They say it takes them through loss and grief, poetry, and visual arts on a journey.
"...This work is a fusion of literary criticism, personal healing from grief, and it extends reverence to the creative process as salvation in itself,..." Read more
"...At times poignant and compelling, at others, convoluted and abstract. Needs the quiet intervals and dynamic variations of Smith’s novels." Read more
"...Page by page, it takes you through loss and grief, poetry, the visual arts, on a journey that entwines life and art...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's literature. They find it engaging and fun for literature and philosophy fans. However, some readers find the writing convoluted and abstract at times.
"...At times poignant and compelling, at others, convoluted and abstract. Needs the quiet intervals and dynamic variations of Smith’s novels." Read more
"The autor caught me unaware that literature and philosophy can be fun. She made me feel like re reading the great Dickens under a new light...." Read more
"I bought this for my daughter who is a huge literature and poetry fan. She absolutely loved it." Read more
Customers enjoy the poetry in the book. They find the writer's writing engaging and describe the book as a blend of fiction, essays, and criticism.
"...Page by page, it takes you through loss and grief, poetry, the visual arts, on a journey that entwines life and art...." Read more
"...There are not enough stars to stamp on this book. It's novel as poetry, essays as journal, fiction as criticism and vice versa...." Read more
"...She's a beautiful writer and following her brain as she pulls disparate poems and novels and essays about art and the act of creation is a joy." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2014Ali Smith in Artful is accomplishing her own creative fusion as she defines the term and creates her own simultaneous example. Creative fusion is basically a blurring of the lines of form, where one type of literary form is seamlessly blended with another. Words are only the symbols within the symbols of thoughts. For example, the form of poetry can be used to discuss political thought; a novel can really be a group of short stories; or a novel can be created from a number of auto-biographical events blended with fictional ones. One of the first major literary works that accomplished this last example was Tom Wolfe’s Look Homeward Angel. The author wrote of his own life through thinly veiled fictional characters, but in a larger-than-life way.
It is not until near the halfway point of her book that Ms. Smith begins to discuss the great novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Then later on she begins to reference the character of the “Artful Dodger” within the novel, until softly you realize that her book, which you are reading, is an artful reference in itself to the artful dodger, and therefore a salute to a literary giant that went before her.
Personally, I had appreciated Dickens’ love of the redemptive salvation theme of orphans in Great Expectations but my appreciation of his Victorian ebullience of phrase was satiated once I completed A Tale of Two Cities. Therefore, I never could bring myself to yet another Dickensian task of Oliver Twist, with its now modernly predictable ending of rags to some form of wealth, spiritual or otherwise. So ironically, I was only familiar with the literary term, “Artful Dodger”, because it was embedded in the social psyche of my own culture in sumptuous proportions. In my reality, the awareness of the term “Artful Dodger” was akin to people quoting Bible or Shakespeare’s verses and not knowing the source, except this time it was me in my own spotty literary knowledge base.
The book is also quite shocking in its intimacy, because we walk right into her continuous soliloquy regarding the loss of her partner. She celebrates the literary skills of her lost love through this spiritual journey of writing as her own cathartic outlet. Her painstaking personal reckoning with grief is cloaked in their joint love of literature. This personal journey through grief reminds one of Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying, but in a more non-fictional vein. This work is a fusion of literary criticism, personal healing from grief, and it extends reverence to the creative process as salvation in itself, simply because the process provides personal meaning for each one of us.
The finding of meaning through the daily slog of one’s own life’s ups and downs rings true with Viktor Frankl’s seminal work Man’s Search for Meaning. Summarily, if one finds meaning in all things, one touches eternity and can live forever. Viktor Frankl found this on his knees in a concentration camp, and survived to teach others through psychotherapy of the same accord.
Ali Smith quotes Virginia Woolf suggesting synergy of thought, essence, reality and form in the quote “the born writer’s gift of being in touch with the thing itself and not with the outer husks of words”. More simply put a writer’s gift of communication comes when you can reach out and touch a new thought with your mind without the fabric of the words impeding your path. This is delicate balance. This is the definition of artfulness.
I have heard some teachers focus on teaching form really well, because they believe that if the form is driving towards perfection, than the content will naturally come and fill the worthy vessel. In my view, the risk in relying too heavily on the teaching method of emphasizing the importance of form over content is that the joy of creation in all of its tenderness can quite easily be killed. Of course, form is easier to grade objectively rather than content, so this is a natural out flow of our instruction system. Many a student has left the English department with a sour taste and mumbling, “But I’m not good at writing…” because they struggled with mastery of form.
Yes there is balance in all, but whatever you do, write for your own joy and no other. Worshiping at the altar of form alone, which is quite easy to do in our “Just the facts, Ma’am” culture, can suddenly be akin to worshiping a death mask of the face of your beloved.
I am about half way through Ms. Smith’s work of non-fiction, and I look forward to slowly imbibing the rest, and see how my thoughts have evolved upon completion. Until then…
- Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2022Not as fine as Ali Smith’s fiction but with all the hallmarks of her erudition, wild inventiveness, lyrical voice. At times poignant and compelling, at others, convoluted and abstract. Needs the quiet intervals and dynamic variations
of Smith’s novels.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2013If I were a writer, I could possibly write a review that would do justice to this book. But I'm not, I have a cold and need more coffee, so all I can simply say is that this book is undefinable. Page by page, it takes you through loss and grief, poetry, the visual arts, on a journey that entwines life and art. As Artful itself recommends, it is a book to be re-read. Perhaps many times. I was blown away by it. Read it!
- Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2013Absolutely loved this book. The lingering aura of a previous love devastates the reader by its pernicious poignancy. I read and then re-read the book and still enjoyed it. The essay form that Susan Sontag so brilliantly revolutionized comes to life here in ways she would have found admirable. There are not enough stars to stamp on this book. It's novel as poetry, essays as journal, fiction as criticism and vice versa. I can't praise Artful enough. It is not overly long or cryptically short. Just right!
- Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2013The more I read interesting and different forms of the novel, the more I am convinced that the book cannot die. It shouldn't and it will not. Reading will never go out of style, and Ali Smith is one of those authors that keep proving this time and again. I started reading her when I was about twenty four or so and haven't stopped since then. All her books are quirky and have this mischief sense about them. This is what attracts me most to her books and her writing. If a writer can make me want to read his or her books without stopping, then that writer has done me in.
"Artful" is unlike anything which Smith has written before. It is based on four lectures given by Ali Smith at Oxford University. "Artful" is all about books and the love of reading and what reading can do to readers. The essays are on four themes: Time, Edge, Offer and Reflection. The lectures were then delivered in the format - as if someone had discovered essays on art and fiction written by a former lover who haunts you. So partly, the book seems to read like a novel and at times like a work of non-fiction, which is a very unique way to write or compile a book.
The narrative and form of the book will instantly get to the reader, such is its power. I had to read the book in parts - could not finish it in one sitting because come to think of it, because of the structure, it is a difficult read in parts. One has to get used to the way it is written and only then can the reader be at ease. What attracted me the most to this book was that it was about art and more so about the love of books and fiction.
"Artful" while is a challenging book; it also lets you explore your imagination and ideas. It sort of blends your ideas with the books' thoughts and that is something which I haven't come across in many books. At the same time, it is quite a challenging book to read, if as a reader you are up to the challenge. Smith's literary references are all over the place and it takes a reader some time to make sense of it, however once that happens, it is breezy read. I would recommend it to you, only if you are interested in books and fiction and art being talked about in another book.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2013Odd...is it a series of essays/lectures or really a novel? I would come down on the side of a series of essays/lectures that never really attains novel status. Literary allusions preclude a novel pace and become annoying.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2019Got it for school with just a click of a button :)
- Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2013I've read Ali Smith's fiction and loved it. Usually I choose to read fiction, but this small volume of essays/lectures pulled me right along. She's a beautiful writer and following her brain as she pulls disparate poems and novels and essays about art and the act of creation is a joy.
Top reviews from other countries
- JillReviewed in Italy on May 25, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational
Art is surprisingly versatile, changeable, inconstant, so as Ali Smith's writings.
Artful is a truly enlightening book — 'On time, On Form, On edge and On offer and on reflection', are the product of four lectures given at Oxford University in which Ali Smith constructed an unknown narrator to tell us about loss and grief, poetry and visual arts. The title is also a huge reference to the character “Artful Dodger” from Dicken's novel 'Oliver Twist', which the narrator from the beginning of the book sits down to reread. Ali Smith's a wide range of interests from literature, art, politics and film and her intelligent lexicon, descriptively fluid and rich in wordplay enriches each of her writings. The author's originality also lies in the fact that each of her books cannot be classified in a single literary genre as fiction, non-fiction or essays, but ranges in something more creative and authentic. A book in my honest opinion, you should read and re-read
- camossungReviewed in Canada on March 28, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
A beautiful original story
- Lakshmi Raj SharmaReviewed in India on December 1, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book
A great book that brings together the head and the heart.
- Kate CudahyReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Art as empathy
"Here’s to the place where reality and the imagination meet, whose exchange, whose dialogue, allows us not just to imagine an unreal different world but also a real different world – to match reality with possibili…" (Smith, Artful, 197)
Ali Smith is one of my all time literary heroes, so it’s kind of difficult for me to be objective about her writing. I understand some of the criticisms that have been levelled at Artful – that it’s too selfconsciously, well, artful, with its puns and its wordplay and its dizzying array of references to high art and low, to cinema, painting, TV, novels, poetry, songs and anecdotes. But, to be honest, that’s what I really want in essays or lectures. I don’t want some dry as dust expostion on the role of aesthetic form. It’s precisely the kind of grasshopper style that drew me to this book in the first place: the ability to cruise from Oliver Twist to Oliver! or from Miłosz to Rilke via Sappho. These associative leaps open up genuine dialogue, not just between the reader and author, but between the texts themselves.
But it’s not just those bold associations that Smith conjures, her linguistic pyrotechnics or the intellectual fizz of Artful which makes it such a wonderful collection of studies. It’s also the way that, at the same time, the author plays with the genre itself, inserting her essays within a narrative framework. Smith fictionalises herself, as the now dead author of a series of lectures which are read by her grieving lover. This is, I believe, one of the most beautiful examples of literature as love letter since Woolf’s Orlando, a gift of startling generosity since, as the narrator later realises, “To be known so well by someone is an unimaginable gift. But to be imagined so well by someone is even better.” (188)
This is what is so characteristic of Smiths’ writing. “Art,” she writes, “is always an exchange, like love, whose giving and taking can be a complex and wounding matter” (166). It is this perception of writing as an act of exchange, as a circuit between reader, writer and text, “the place where reality and imagination meet,” which forms the bedrock of her literary project. Because, beneath the wit and wisdom of her prose lies compassion and warmth, an empathy which, she explains, is ‘art’s part-exchange…its inclusivity, at once a kindness, a going beyond the self.’ (178)
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Client d'AmazonReviewed in France on April 30, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Brillante Ali Smith
Intelligent, brillant même!
Lire aussi d urgence les nouvelles et romans! Dans la tradition de la fiction anglaise, pour les amoureux de créative writing