{"id":2691,"date":"2015-12-11T13:21:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T08:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/?p=2691"},"modified":"2015-12-14T19:41:52","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T14:41:52","slug":"best-in-reading-2015-pooja-pande-lead-reportage-editor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/2015\/12\/best-in-reading-2015-pooja-pande-lead-reportage-editor\/","title":{"rendered":"Best in Reading 2015 &#8211; Pooja Pande, Lead Reportage Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2692\" src=\"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith-669x1024.jpg 669w, https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith-98x150.jpg 98w, https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith-1000x1528.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith.jpg 1808w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/a>Today we have part three in our Best in Reading series. Here is Pooja Pande, lead reportage editor of Papercuts magazine, with her pick,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/How-be-both-A-novel\/dp\/0375424105\" target=\"_blank\"><em> How to be Both<\/em><\/a> by Ali Smith.<\/p>\n<p>An Ali Smith book is always an Ali Smith book, in some ways \u2013 we can expect an irreverent disregard for rules of any kind \u2013 to do with the genre she\u2019s writing in, for the form of the novel, towards wordplay, even structural sanctity (or is it sanity?). But then an Ali Smith book is also never like any <em>other<\/em> Ali Smith book \u2013 if <em>Hotel World<\/em> grappled with time and mortality, and <em>The Accidental<\/em> was a satirical take on the construct of the family, then <em>How to Be Both<\/em> is, in its very essence, a treatise on art.<\/p>\n<p>Posing the conundrums that have plagued artists and connoisseurs since eternity, and continue to be at the forefront of most modern political discussions \u2013 What is art? What is the purpose of art? What can art solve, or resolve, if anything? What about the artist? Does he have responsibility? \u2013 the novel dwells on the relationship between art and life, and one echoing the other.<\/p>\n<p>Smith has such a deliciously playful style that none of this weighs down the reader, or the book. She storytells her way through it all, as we\u2019re pulled into the life of George and her mother, of dance routines and forbidden loves, of 60s pop stars and pre-teen heartache. The narrative voice is primarily that of a teenager\u2019s \u2013 perhaps one of the most common threads in Smith\u2019s books is that she is partial to the child\u2019s perspective \u2013 and this is one of the reasons that ensures <em>How to Be Both<\/em> full of tenderness and yet devoid of sentimentality.<\/p>\n<p>If you ever find yourself wondering about the novel\u2019s potential, read this one. Read it anyway. And there\u2019s a big bonus: Some very cool time-travelling right back to fifteenth century Italy.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned for the next book(s) in the series and be sure to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/desi_writers\">tweet<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/desiwriterslounge\/?fref=ts\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0your favorite book of 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today we have part three in our Best in Reading series. Here is Pooja Pande, lead reportage editor of Papercuts magazine, with her pick, How to be Both by Ali Smith. An Ali Smith book is always an Ali Smith book, in some ways \u2013 we can expect an irreverent disregard for rules of any [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[647,649,648],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2691"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2714,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions\/2714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}