How to Be Both

Ali Smith, 2014

Date Read: 12/7/23

I have no idea what this novel is supposed to be about. (This entire review is spoilers so, buckle up).

It starts with the ghost of a guy who is actually a woman, from the Renaissance, who was a painter. The ghost is reminicing about his/her life while also watching a young girl in some period of time (but there are cell phones and internet so, now-ish) who is greiving the death of her mother. Then in Part I, which starts halfway through the book and is the only labled Part, it switches to the girl herself, who is a baby lesbian. Her mother was interested in the paintings by the person who later becomes the ghost. That's the only conection between the ghost and the girl, and they never communicate. (In fact, the ghost disappears when we switch the the girl's POV).

That's the novel.

I guess it is supposed to be looking at gender and sexuality, which it does, in a way. But I don't understand any of the point of the ghost person or why his/her POV was necessary. It would have been just as easy to mention that they were really a woman without all of the regression into their life. I guess. I don't know, I'm not an award winning writer. Just a person.