Ilse’s Reviews > Dead and Alive > Status Update

What your impression of this collection, dear Ilse? I’ve read her previous ones and some essays in this one when they were published elsewhere, but so far I am not convinced about reading the whole.

Katia wrote: "What your impression of this collection, dear Ilse? I’ve read her previous ones and some essays in this one when they were published elsewhere, but so far I am not convinced about reading the whole."
Most of the pieces have been already published elsewhere so if they didn't warm you to read the whole, I don't think I would recommend to read the other pieces in this collection, dear Katia. I liked the tone of them, often warm and empathic pieces which make an excellent read if you crave for some optimism and solidarity as an antidote (and comfort) to the many political decisions which seem inspired by harsh neoliberalism - and it was quite fascinating to read this immediately after Rachel Cusk, they couldn't be more different in temperament and points of interest:). So even if they were not particularly groundbreaking, I enjoyed reading them in between other activities in these busy days - and of course the quote on consciousness reminded me of you :)!

That quote speaks to me, Ilse, thanks for sharing. I’ve not read her nonfiction. Hope this coming year is a good one for you and your loved ones… 💖

Jennifer wrote: "That quote speaks to me, Ilse, thanks for sharing. I’ve not read her nonfiction. Hope this coming year is a good one for you and your loved ones… 💖"
Hi Jennifer, there are a couple of pieces in this which I imagine you would enjoy, eg her essays on Kara Walker and also the ones on writing. I thought them a bit less accomplished than the first six essays on books in her 'Changing my mind', but Smith's essays were a breath of fresh air in a very taxing period at work and at home which left me almost no time to read. Wishing you and yours a very happy New Year, may it be gentle and generous to you in every respect!

Yes, reading this a third or maybe even fourth time I agree with her .

Thank you, dear Ilse. I might come back up her at some stage. I normally prefer her non-fiction to her fiction and her voice is ineeed compassionate and thoughtful. In terms of this quote, thank you for thinking of me:-). I am about to embark on another journey with this topic again sometime this year:-). But when I’ve read your post for the first time I thought she has reminded me of something I’ve read recently and it has come back when I was writing about Proust on Xmas. This is his full quote from the last volume. I thought he said it magnificently:
“Real life, life finally uncovered and clarified, the only life in consequence lived to the full, is literature. Life in this sense dwells within all ordinary people as much as in the artist. But they do not see it because they are not trying to shed light on it. And so their past is cluttered with countless photographic negatives, which continue to be useless because their intellect has never 'developed' them. Our lives; and the lives of other people, too; because style for a writer, like colour for a painter, is a question not of technique but of vision. It is the revelation, which would be impossible by direct or conscious means, of the qualitative difference in the ways we perceive the world, a difference which, if there were no art, would remain the eternal secret of each individual.
It is only through art that we can escape from ourselves and know how another person sees a universe which is not the same as our own and whose landscapes would otherwise have remained as unknown as any there may be on the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing only a single world, our own, we see it multiplied..”