How to Be Both by Ali Smith: Introduction
How to Be Both by Ali Smith stands as one of the most innovative and celebrated novels of the 21st century. Published in 2014, this remarkable book has earned numerous prestigious awards, including the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize, and the Costa Novel Award. What makes this novel truly unique is its experimental structure – the book was published in two versions, with half the copies starting with one story and half starting with the other, creating a different reading experience for each reader.
Ali Smith, a Scottish author born in 1962, crafted this masterpiece as both a meditation on grief and a celebration of art’s power to connect people across centuries. The novel explores themes of identity, love, loss, and the mysterious ways that art can bridge different times and places.
What is “How to Be Both” About?
“How to Be Both” tells two interconnected stories that span over 600 years. The first narrative in “How to Be Both by Ali Smith” follows George, a sixteen-year-old girl living in contemporary Cambridge, England. George is struggling to cope with the sudden death of her beloved mother, who was an activist and art lover. As she tries to understand her grief and find her place in the world, George becomes fascinated by the work of Francesco del Cossa, a Renaissance painter her mother had loved.
The second story in “How to Be Both by Ali Smith” takes us back to 15th-century Italy, where we meet Francescho del Cossa (note the feminine spelling), the artist who has captured George’s imagination. This section reveals that Francesco was actually a woman who disguised herself as a man to pursue her passion for painting in a time when women were forbidden from being professional artists. The story follows her life, her artistic achievements, and her struggles with identity and societal expectations.
These two narratives don’t just exist side by side – they speak to each other across time. The dead artist’s spirit somehow connects with the grieving teenager, creating a mysterious bond that transcends death and centuries. Both characters are dealing with loss, both are questioning their identities, and both find solace and understanding through art.
Main Characters in “How to Be Both”
George (Georgia)
George is the contemporary protagonist, a bright and articulate sixteen-year-old who has recently lost her mother. She’s dealing with the practical challenges of helping care for her younger brother Henry while her father struggles with alcoholism and grief. George is intelligent, observant, and has inherited her mother’s sharp wit and interest in social justice. Her character development throughout the novel shows her moving from initial numbness and confusion toward a more complex understanding of love, loss, and identity.
Francescho del Cossa
The Renaissance artist serves as both a historical figure and a spiritual presence in the modern story. Born female but living as a man to pursue art, Francescho represents the theme of “being both” that runs throughout the novel. The character is based on the real Francesco del Cossa, who painted famous frescoes in Ferrara, Italy. In Smith’s version, the artist becomes a complex figure exploring gender identity, artistic passion, and the cost of living authentically in a restrictive society.
Carol (George’s Mother)
Though deceased when the novel begins, Carol remains a vital presence throughout the story. She was an economist, journalist, and activist who believed she was being monitored by security services for her subversive activities. Her love for art, particularly del Cossa’s work, forms the connection between the two timelines. Her relationship with George was close and loving, filled with intellectual conversations and shared adventures.
Helena (H)
George’s school friend who becomes important to her healing process. Helena is artistic and understanding, helping George work through her grief while also introducing elements of first love and friendship that help George reconnect with life.
Mrs. Rock
George’s school counselor, who represents the adult world’s sometimes inadequate attempts to help young people process grief. Through their conversations, Smith explores how we talk about death and healing in contemporary society.
Summary of “How to Be Both by Ali Smith”
The novel “How to Be Both by Ali Smith” opens with George reflecting on her mother’s recent death and remembering their last significant trip together to Italy, where they visited the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara to see Francesco del Cossa’s famous frescoes. At the time, George had little interest in art, but her mother was captivated by del Cossa’s work, particularly questioning why this one artist’s technique seemed so superior to the others who worked on the same room.
George’s world has been turned upside down by her mother’s sudden death from an allergic reaction. Her father has retreated into drinking, leaving George to help care for her younger brother Henry. The family is struggling to function, and George finds herself attending counseling sessions with the well-meaning but somewhat ineffective Mrs. Rock. During these sessions, George’s sharp intelligence and defensive humor become apparent as she verbally spars with the counselor while refusing to fully engage with her grief.
As George tries to navigate her new reality, she becomes obsessed with understanding her mother’s interests, particularly her fascination with Francesco del Cossa. This obsession leads George to skip school and travel to London to visit the National Gallery, where she stares at del Cossa’s painting of Saint Vincent Ferrer. These visits become a kind of ritual for George, a way of maintaining a connection to her lost mother.
During one of these visits, George encounters Lisa Goliard, a mysterious white-haired woman who claims to have been a friend of her mother’s and identifies herself as an artist. However, George’s mother had suspected Lisa of being a government agent monitoring her activist activities, and George inherits this paranoia and suspicion. The relationship with Lisa becomes one of the novel’s ongoing mysteries, representing the themes of surveillance, trust, and the difficulty of knowing truth from deception.
Meanwhile, George begins to form new relationships that help her process her grief. She connects with Helena, a classmate who shares her interest in art and becomes both a friend and a romantic interest. Their relationship develops slowly, providing George with a sense of possibility for the future. Helena helps George with a school project that involves researching del Cossa, further deepening George’s connection to the Renaissance artist.
In the parallel narrative, we meet Francescho del Cossa as a disembodied spirit who finds herself drawn to observe George in the National Gallery. This spiritual presence doesn’t understand initially why she’s been pulled to this particular girl, but gradually recognizes something in George’s grief that resonates with her own experiences of loss and identity confusion.
The artist’s story unfolds as she recalls her life in 15th-century Ferrara and Bologna. Born female, Francescho was encouraged by her father to adopt male dress and identity in order to pursue her artistic ambitions. This decision was partly practical – women couldn’t be professional artists – but it also reflected something authentic about Francescho’s sense of self. The disguise becomes both a liberation and a burden, allowing her to create magnificent works while forcing her to hide fundamental aspects of her identity.
Francescho’s artistic career reaches its peak with the commission to paint frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoia’s Hall of the Months. These elaborate works combine classical mythology with contemporary court life, creating layered narratives that celebrate both divine and earthly love. However, when Francescho feels inadequately compensated for this masterwork, she leaves Ferrara for Bologna, where she continues her artistic career until her death.
The connection between George and Francescho deepens as both characters grapple with questions of identity and belonging. George’s grief for her mother parallels Francescho’s lifelong grief for living a partially hidden life. Both characters are “both” things – George is both a child and someone forced into adult responsibilities, both angry and loving toward her dead mother. Francescho is both male and female, both devoted to art and frustrated by the compromises required to practice it.
As George’s story progresses, she begins to heal through her relationships with Helena and through her growing understanding of art’s power to communicate across time and death. She starts to imagine a future where her father recovers from his grief and drinking, where she can pursue her own interests and relationships. The visits to see del Cossa’s painting become less desperate and more contemplative.
The novel’s structure reinforces its themes, with the two stories eventually converging in a way that suggests art’s ability to create connections beyond the physical world. George’s growing maturity and acceptance of her mother’s death parallels Francescho’s gradual understanding of why she has been drawn to observe this grieving girl. Both stories conclude with a sense of resolution and hope, though many questions remain unanswered.
The final sections of the book suggest that George and Helena’s school project about del Cossa may be creating or channeling the very story we’ve been reading about the artist. This metafictional element adds another layer to the novel’s exploration of how art is created and how it connects people across time. The boundary between imagination and reality becomes beautifully blurred, suggesting that all art involves a kind of resurrection of the dead and that creative work can be a form of communication with the past.
Through both narratives, Smith explores how people survive loss, how identity can be fluid and multiple, and how art serves as a bridge between different worlds and times. The novel ends with both characters having found a kind of peace – George with her grief and Francescho with her long-delayed understanding of her earthly mission to comfort a grieving girl centuries in the future.
Major Themes in “How to Be Both”
Grief and Healing
The most prominent theme in the novel is the exploration of grief and the long process of healing from loss. George’s journey through mourning for her mother provides the emotional core of the contemporary narrative. Smith doesn’t present grief as something to be “gotten over” but rather as something to be lived with and gradually integrated into one’s life. The healing process involves forming new relationships, finding ways to honor the memory of the lost person, and eventually being able to imagine a future that includes both sorrow and joy.
Identity and Gender
Both main characters struggle with questions of identity, particularly around gender roles and expectations. Francescho’s decision to live as a man to pursue art raises questions about the relationship between gender identity and social roles. George, dealing with adolescence and grief simultaneously, is also figuring out who she is and who she wants to become. The novel suggests that identity can be fluid and that people can be “both” things – both male and female, both artist and person, both grieving and healing.
Art’s Power to Connect
Throughout the novel, art serves as a bridge between different times, places, and people. Del Cossa’s paintings connect Renaissance Italy with contemporary England, and they provide a way for a grieving teenager to feel connected to her dead mother. Smith suggests that great art has the power to communicate across centuries and that creating or experiencing art can be a form of communion with others, both living and dead.
Time and Mortality
The novel plays with concepts of linear time and suggests that past and present can coexist in meaningful ways. The dead artist’s ability to observe and interact with the living teenager challenges conventional ideas about death and suggests that important relationships and influences can transcend physical death. The theme explores how the past continues to live in the present through art, memory, and ongoing influence.
Truth and Deception
Questions of what is real and what is imagined run throughout both narratives. George’s paranoia about being watched, inherited from her mother, creates uncertainty about which characters can be trusted. Similarly, Francescho’s disguised identity raises questions about authentic self-presentation. The novel suggests that truth can be complex and multiple, and that sometimes deception can be a form of survival or self-protection.
Background
“How to Be Both” was published in 2014 by Hamish Hamilton and represents a significant achievement in contemporary experimental fiction. The novel draws inspiration from the real Francesco del Cossa, an Italian Renaissance painter who lived from approximately 1430 to 1477. Del Cossa was indeed famous for his frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, which depicted the months of the year in elaborate allegorical scenes combining mythology, astrology, and contemporary court life.
The historical del Cossa was known for his innovative techniques and his disputes with patrons over payment for his work. Like the character in Smith’s novel, he did leave Ferrara for Bologna after feeling inadequately compensated for his masterwork in the Hall of the Months. However, Smith’s decision to reimagine the artist as a woman living in male disguise is a fictional innovation that allows her to explore themes of gender identity and artistic authenticity.
Ali Smith has spoken about being inspired by the formal properties of fresco painting, where earlier sketches and paintings often lie beneath the visible surface. This technique influenced the novel’s structure, where two stories exist simultaneously, sometimes visible to each other and sometimes hidden. The decision to publish the book in two different orders was unprecedented in contemporary fiction and reflects Smith’s interest in challenging readers’ expectations and creating different reading experiences.
The novel was written during a period when Smith was particularly interested in questions of how art survives across time and how contemporary people can connect with historical artistic works. Her research into Renaissance art and the specific historical context of 15th-century Ferrara provides the rich background detail that makes Francescho’s story feel authentic despite its fictional elements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do I need to read the book in a particular order?
A: No, there’s no “correct” order to read the two parts. Ali Smith deliberately published the book in two versions to show that different reading orders create different experiences. Trust whichever version you happen to get, as both orders work effectively.
Q: Is Francesco del Cossa a real historical figure?
A: Yes, Francesco del Cossa was a real Italian Renaissance painter famous for his frescoes in Ferrara. However, Ali Smith’s portrayal of the artist as a woman living in male disguise is fictional. The real del Cossa’s gender identity and personal life remain historically unclear.
Q: Is this book difficult to understand?
A: While the novel deals with complex themes and has an experimental structure, Smith writes in accessible, engaging prose. The contemporary story with George is particularly straightforward, while the Renaissance sections use more stylized language but remain readable.
Q: How long does it take to read “How to Be Both”?
A: Most readers complete the novel in 6-8 hours of reading time. The book is approximately 370 pages long and moves at a good pace despite its literary complexity.
Q: Should I know about Renaissance art before reading this?
A: No prior knowledge of Renaissance art is necessary. Smith provides enough context within the novel to understand the artistic and historical references. However, readers interested in learning more about del Cossa’s actual frescoes may find their appreciation of the novel enhanced.
Q: Is this book appropriate for young adult readers?
A: The novel deals with mature themes including death, sexuality, and identity questions, but the language and content are generally appropriate for mature teenagers. The protagonist George is sixteen, which makes the book particularly relevant for young adult readers dealing with similar issues.
Conclusion
“How to Be Both by Ali” Smith represents a remarkable achievement in contemporary fiction, successfully combining experimental structure with deeply human storytelling. The novel’s exploration of grief, identity, and art’s power to connect people across time creates a reading experience that is both intellectually challenging and emotionally satisfying.
Smith’s decision to reimagine the historical Francesco del Cossa as a woman artist struggling with gender identity adds layers of meaning to the story while highlighting ongoing contemporary issues about authenticity and self-expression. The parallel narrative structure doesn’t just serve as a clever formal device but actually enhances the novel’s themes about how past and present, art and life, individual identity and universal human experience can all coexist and inform each other.
The lasting impact of “How to Be Both” lies in its demonstration that literature can still surprise us with new ways of telling stories while addressing timeless human concerns. In an age of rapid change and uncertainty, Smith’s novel suggests that art remains one of our most powerful tools for understanding ourselves and connecting with others across the boundaries of time, culture, and even death.
