Public library and other stories

Surprisingly, there is no story actually entitled “Public Library” in the collection, but interspersed between the stories are different people, often librarians, describing their relationship with public libraries. Libraries represent a serendipity of learning, I like that observation, I learnt a lot from what I read in public libraries, strangely I am not actively using any public library now, maybe when the pandemic is over I will check out one of the libraries in Tbilisi. I had been a member of the Mediatek in Varketili, until we moved from Varketili in 2017 to the centre of Tbilisi, I had also used the library of the French Institute, but have read little in French lately. Now, I find YouTube is my destination for serendipitous learning.The collection of stories and musings isn’t confined to public libraries in the UK, there is an anecdote about an experience in a library in Toronto, also in 2002, post 9/11 security concerns obliged Pakistani authorities to close down the Karachi central library."Talk to Karachi’s citizens long enough about what that vast, troubled city of 20 million plus most needs and eventually you stumble on the phrase ‘places to escape to’. In other words, libraries."Once you tune into Ali Smith’s whimsical style, it is a joy to read, she clearly loves books, libraries and words. In a novel this style is too affected, but here it works if you allow it to. It could also be a swansong for the public library, four hundred libraries in the UK are in danger of closing, they are not valued by those who hold the public purse-strings. Ali Smith is defending the library – taking a stand for the difference they make in our lives.Democracy or reading, democracy of space: our public library tradition, wherever we live in the wide world, was incredibly hard-won for us by the generations before us and ought to be protected, not just for ourselves but in the name of every generation after us.The stories in Public Libraries and Other Stories are a heterogeneous mix of things/subjects, like in a real public library: a disabled woman trapped on a train, credit card identity theft, searching for “elsewhere”, D.H. Lawrence’s ashes, Dusty Springfield, an obscure Scottish poet…

If you love libraries

Both quirky and profound.

Just don't expect a series of short stories all dealing with, or set in, public libraries, and you'll be fine. Heaven forbid that Ali Smith, a novelist who relishes the unexpected and the creative, would do anything quite that predictable and prosaic, even in an anthology devoted to and entitled "Public Library", and whose stories are separated by anecdotes about the vital role that libraries play in the lives of readers, authors and societies.Smith is much more oblique in her approach to her theme. They are linked by language and sometimes by how the very words we use are employed; by communication and the way we chose to communicate. She clearly enjoys contrasting traditional printed word on paper with the world of devices, whether it's in the form of a character's frustration with a credit card company as she tries to navigate a telephone answering system to report fraud, or later, when another character tries to get a newspaper's online readers -- and its impersonal door answering intercom -- to admit that for the second time (ten years apart) they made an error in reporting that he was dead. In "The Definite Article", ostensibly about the narrator's decision to abandon a meeting in favor of a ramble through Regent's Park in London, Smith is reveling in the fact that every bit of the city is littered with its literary history, even those covered with grass. Some stories don't even feel like "stories," such as "The Poet": it's really more of a brief biography of the (very real) Scottish poet Olive Fraser, whose poetry I now will have to seek out (perhaps even in a library?)These are quirky, offbeat and sometimes downright disconcerting stories, some of which clearly feature Ali Smith telling her own story, while others are purely (and wildly) inventive. The "essay" portions themselves were very short and became a bit repetitive and predictable: (somewhat famous author) says libraries were vital to his/her development because (insert reason here) and (insert heart-warming personal story here.) I'm not a curmudgeon, and I think what is happening to Britain's public libraries (and what could happen in the U.S. as well) is horrific. That said, the mini-essays simply don't measure up in creativity to the fictional content, and that does the heart of the problem a disservice. The exception to that is the four-page anecdote with which the collection opens, about a library turned into a private club featuring, among myriad other offerings, "access to rare library books." Where were the stories about sit-ins protesting library closures, or other measures of that kind? With more substance in the essay portion, this could have been a five-star book.

My public library set out a collection of books for people who love to read about books. So I picked out “Public Library and Other Stories” since I love to read books about how books and reading can affect our lives. This collection wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but it was clever and engaging and made me think, so what more can a reader want? I enjoyed the vignettes between the stories, honestly and emotionally describing how public libraries have had profound impacts on people’s lives. Alternating with those brief first-person vignettes are 12 original short stories that, at first glance, have little to do with libraries themselves. But upon more thoughtful perusal, each story has at least a fleeting reference to word usage, reading, libraries, literary allusion, or finding orderly meaning out of disorderly things, like dreams and memories. After all, what is more orderly and meaningful (I.e. full of meaning) than a library? As inspiration, the author leads with: “You are in transition; you are on the threshold/The library is the place that gets you. Pure gold.” You may not “get” each of these unusual stories or the people who inhabit them, but you will be able to identify with their need to fit in and make meaning out of the confusing world around them, and us.

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.

whilst recognising the literary brilliance, I guess its just not my genre - I like a story to be, erm, a story. That's just my opinion though and I believe Ali to be a great writer.

A heartfelt cheer in myriad ways for the wonder that is our public library service - while being much much more besides.

A great read. Thank you.

Very canny and highly enjoyable mixture of short stories and local politics.