Beautifully written, mixing medieval past with the present in a strangely cohesive way. ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2023/09/2023139-companion-piece-ali-smith.html ( )

The title of this novel is "Companion Piece"
Whoever it is who keeps adding additional text to the title in this case - the new novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of How To Be Both by
it is not needed, not helpful and not clever. Just stop it.

Ali Smith writes so fluidly and with such verve that perhaps it’s natural for her to take on the immediacy of her situation in her writing. Not that she doesn’t tie the present to the past or even the distant past. Here, Covid restrictions link to abstruse border controls and other, more ancient, forms of control. And while there are markers of belonging in the present, there are also even more insidious markings of dis-belonging in the past. And also, not surprisingly, there are stories within stories.

Smith’s writing can feel utterly up to the minute as well being a bit timeless. It is always a pleasure to read her and an equal pleasure to recommend her to others.

Recommended. ( )

Different stories are companions in this amazing novel. Ali Smith gives us plenty of word play, starting with curfew / curlew, as we meet her narrator. She is an artist whose dad is in hospital (not with Covid-19 but it is a lockdown and she can't visit). A university friend rings with a strange story about an ornate and beautiful lock and a disembodied voice saying curfew / curlew. The story feels amusing and slightly slapstick when the friend's twins turn up on her doorstep, cross that their mother has changed and the word play continues. Her dad's dog Shep is with her and missing her father. The story takes us to a young female blacksmith who adopts a curlew after being beaten up after curfew. Ali Smith manages to allow her reader to hold onto different emotions and shift from small stuff to big stuff (the NHS, Climate Change) seamlessly and seemingly effortlessly. Ultimately, this is a masterpiece and an upbeat novel with companionship threaded through the companionable tales. ( )