Public Library and Other Stories review – campaigning collection from the establishment experimentalist

Interleaved with statements about the importance of libraries from friends and acquaintances, these stories showcase Smith’s talents

She is now officially a national treasure: Ali Smith FRSL CBE, the establishment experimentalist. Winner of more prizes than most of us knew existed – the Saltire, the Encore, the Whitbread, the Goldsmiths, the Costa, the Baileys – and perpetually shortlisted for just about every other, Smith produces books that hover between fiction and non-fiction. There are novels that read like lessons in art history (How to Be Both), there are short story collections that read like mini biogs (The First Person and Other Stories) and there are lectures that are actually stories (Artful). With her new collection, Smith now establishes for herself an entirely new role and purpose, as a campaigner for the cause of public libraries.

Kind of. The 12 short stories in the book are interleaved with statements about the importance of public libraries by Smith’s friends and acquaintances, a bit like a bonus disc with a DVD. There’s a poem by Jackie Kay, “Dear Library”, and comments and reminiscences by the novelists Helen Oyeyemi, Kate Atkinson and many more, and they all say good and true things about public libraries. (“A library card in your hand is your democracy,” quotes Smith quoting Kay quoting her father.)

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