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Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
Dec 22, 2024 5:57 AM

Author:Kasia Boddy,Ali Smith,Kasia Boddy,Sarah Wood

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

An unusual, witty anthology of love stories selected by Ali Smith, Kasia Boddy and Sarah Wood.

Love means never having to say you're sorry. No, love is in the air. No, love is the sweetest thing. No, it's soft as an easy chair. No, it's a stranger in an open car. No, it's a many-splendoured thing. No, it's the drug. No, it's like a butterfly.

Oh, let's call the whole thing off.

Love stories don't always involve hearts and flowers and walks in the park. This sparkling collection of the world's greatest love quarrels, from Chekhov to Colette, from D. H. Lawrence to Jhumpa Lahiri, features love stories for every mood and occasion. Here are new lovers testing the ground, cosy couples enjoying a quiet squabble before bedtime, and exes intent on picking up where they left off.

Often love quarrels start with trivial matters, such as a bride's new hat in Dorothy Parker's 'Here We Are' or a choice of bedtime book in Jackie Kay's 'You Go When You Can No Longer Stay'. But it doesn't usually take long for the stakes to be raised. Love is a risky business ...

ALI SMITH was born in Inverness in 1962 and lives in Cambridge. She is the author of Like (1997); Other Stories And Other Stories (1999); Hotel World (2001), which was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize; The Whole Stories and Other Stories (2003) and The Accidental, published by Hamish Hamilton in 2005. Ali Smith also writes for the Guardian, the Scotsman and the TLS.

KASIA BODDY is a senior lecturer in English at UCL. She is the author of Boxing: A Cultural History (2008) and co-editor (with Ali Smith & Sarah Wood) of Brilliant Careers: The Virago Book of Twentieth-Century Fiction (2000); she has contributed an introduction to the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

SARAH WOOD is an artist, filmmaker and film curator.

Reviews

An extraordinarily revealing collection of thoughts around the son-father relationship — sad, cheeky and illuminating perspectives of the male heart.

—— Sainsbury's magazine

Excellent and beautiful…an extraordinary breadth of material.

—— Newsweek

Wodehouse is the greatest comic writer

—— Douglas Adams

The funniest writer ever to put words on paper

—— Hugh Laurie

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

Mr Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in

—— Evelyn Waugh in a BBC broadcast

The head of my profession

—— Hilaire Belloc

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

—— Kathy Lette

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

When it comes to humour, there is only one writer who can slay you with a mere flip of the pen. This, of course, is P.G. Wodehouse

—— Guardian

Superlative.

—— Jessie Burton, 'Best Books of 2016' , Observer

Could not be more timely.

—— Louise Daughty, 'Best Books of 2016' , Observer

The Good Immigrant is that rarest of beasts, a truly necessary book.

—— Jonathan Coe, 'Best Books of 2016' , Observer

I was deeply affected by The Good Immigrant, a vital and often bitingly funny series of personal essays

—— James Graham, 'Best Books of 2016' , Observer

Should become required reading for a new UK citizenship test – one to be taken by everyone who was born here, that is.

—— Books of the Year , Times Higher Education

A fascinating read

—— BBC Breakfast

I was expecting something serious, even upsetting. The Good Immigrant is both at times, but the 21 essays are also engrossing, human and hilarious.

—— Best Books for Christmas , i

Sticks two fingers up at a discriminatory publishing industry.

—— New Statesman

The essays, in turns witty, uncomfortable and inspiring, would make for great reading at any time, but were especially welcome this year.

—— Books of the Year , The Pool

Existentially challenging to the status quo. It could not be more timely.

—— Readers' Books of 2016 , Guardian

What a phenomenal book: timely, poignant and insightful. It deserves to be read as widely as possible.

—— Malorie Blackman

Warm, funny and often moving. A delight.

—— Shappi Khorsandi

Quite simply a wonderful antidote to the tired cliches.

—— Fatima Manji, Channel 4 News

A bold, beautiful and urgent book that should be read widely in these politically and racially charged times. It opened my eyes so much, and, in my opinion, is the most exciting publication of 2016.

—— Holly Muller , Big Issue

I am stupidly grateful for this book. It opened my eyes to my own experience and gave me words for feelings I had known but never acknowledged. I carry it with me whenever I travel, to remind me that the world is good. Buy this book, carry it with you everywhere, give it to everyone you know. We need it now more than ever.

—— Emmy the Great

Here are a bunch of brave writers actually doing something about representation … an important book.

—— Sathnam Sanghera

Incisive, funny, searingly honest … it contains work that should be read by all.

—— DJ Nihal

Brilliant, unclichéd, unique. A book of our time, which everyone must read.

—— Shazia Mirza

I want everyone to read this book. I found myself nodding along, feeling the pain, hilarity and anger.

—— Anita Rani

The Good Immigrant's strength not only comes in its numbers, but through the uniqueness of each essay inside, ranging from Coco Khan’s look at sexuality and fetishisation, through to Riz MC’s retelling of his typical treatment in airport security.

—— Complex

A stunning collection of original voices, challenging how we see race and difference.

—— Mishal Husain

I knew I'd be interested in this book. I didn't realise I'd be so moved. At a time when British identity is being claimed as the exclusive preserve of people who wish immigration had stopped with Hengist and Horsa, it does the heart good to be reminded of how many of us there are, and how deeply woven we are into the fabric of our country. It's a book that will make a lot of young Britons feel more powerful and less alone. Each essay is like another new friend standing up and saying to the reader, 'I see you.'

—— Hari Kunzru
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