PositiveReadings (AUS)In her 2012 book Artful, Smith reflects that ‘books need time to dawn on us’, for us to ‘understand what makes them, structurally, in thematic resonance, in afterthought’. There are few writers whose work exemplifies this more acutely than Smith herself. Companion Piece is no exception, suffused as it is with motifs that subtly shift and gather weight as the book unfolds. With its playful sense of language’s possibilities and its experimental edge, this new novel explores the potentially transformative power that connection can hold. And while it may not reach the heights of Smith’s best work, to read (and re-read) Companion Piece is to be enlivened along with its protagonist.
