Narrative Signal Profile
At a Glance
How to be both by Ali Smith is a lyrical, formally playful work of literary fiction that moves between contemporary Cambridge and the Renaissance city of Ferrara. The novel notably centres on George, a teenager reeling from her mother’s recent death, and Francesco del Cossa, a Renaissance fresco painter whose work hangs in the Palazzo Schifanoia. Their lives are linked by a single fresco and by George’s fixation on an art-history trip she once took with her mother. Rather than a straightforward plot, the book builds its momentum through character, memory, and the way looking at images can change over time. The result is a reading experience that feels intimate and emotionally charged while still being accessible and grounded in concrete scenes of family, art, and loss.
Comparative Context
The core mechanism of How to be both lies in its split structure: one strand follows George in present-day England, the other follows Francesco del Cossa in Renaissance Italy. Ali Smith uses this dual narrative to foreground questions of duality and identity, not just in the characters but in the act of seeing and being seen. The Palazzo Schifanoia frescoes and George’s art-history memories provide the world rules that keep the two timelines in conversation, while the social systems of family, gender expectations, and artistic patronage shape how each character can move through their world. The book’s non-linear pacing intertwines George’s grief with Francesco’s creative struggle, because the way George looks at the fresco drives how we understand Francesco’s life, and Francesco’s perspective in turn reshapes George’s story. This structure exposes how art and time, and grief and memory, are inseparable in the novel’s emotional logic.
Reader Fit
Best suited for a reader looking for a lyrical, emotionally charged character study that plays with structure while remaining grounded in recognisable family dynamics and the textures of art. The ideal reading mood is reflective and patient, with space to sit with how duality and identity, art and time, and grief and memory echo between George and Francesco. Less suited for someone who prioritises fast, twist-driven plots or strictly linear storytelling. A friction point: the non-linear structure and shifting perspectives may initially feel disorienting, especially if you expect clear chapter-by-chapter progression. The reward: a strong sense of character immersion and emotional payoff as the two narrative strands click together and the connections between past and present, painter and viewer, become movingly clear.
Within contemporary literary fiction that uses multiple timelines, what separates How to be both from many similar novels is how tightly its emotional engine depends on the concrete act of looking at art rather than on large external events. Where other character-driven books might use coincidence or dramatic plot twists to connect lives, this one relies on the quiet but insistent pressure of a single fresco and an art-history memory to link George and Francesco. Its focus on duality and identity, art and time, and grief and memory is strongly anchored in specific images and voices, giving the experimental structure a warmth and immediacy that can feel rare in formally inventive work.
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Interpretive Commentary
Reading How to be both feels like entering a carefully arranged gallery rather than a straight corridor. The pacing is notably non-linear, with scenes looping back on themselves and key moments reframed from different angles, yet the chapters remain short and approachable. The cognitive load is moderate: the shifting chronology and mirrored motifs ask for attention, but the prose itself is clear, rhythmic, and strongly lyrical. Emotional tone is clearly intense, as George’s mourning and Francesco’s precarious position as an artist create a sustained undercurrent of longing, tenderness, and occasional sharp humour. Narrative distance often stays close to the characters’ interior lives, especially George’s, so the reader is invited to inhabit their perceptions rather than watch from afar. Plot momentum is moderate, with the satisfaction coming less from events than from the gradual accumulation of emotional and thematic connections.