There but for the - Ali Smith

A novel that I started to read on my return journey from Bolivia this Christmas.

I highly doubt that one can appreciate a novel, or a movie, or anything really, while on an intercontinental flight in economy class on New Year's Eve while travelling with two young daughters. Also, I've probably read too many Ali Smith novels recently (more on those later, as I work my way backwards through the list of the books that I've read over the last three years).

There but for the is a typical Ali Smith novel for me, but its witticisms fell flat for me, and I've probably started to have enough of some of her likeable smart misfits. Yet, the book is set in Greenwich and along roads and buildings that I can see from my flat, and I now won't be able to enter the foot tunnel without thinking about Ali Smith, so after all it was worth the read.

And obviously there's a really good chance that if I hadn't read this book while on a flight, or if this was my first Ali Smith novel, I would have found it wonderful. Sadly, I read this book while on a flight, and it was the latest in a long list of Ali Smith novels for me.