RaveThe San Francisco ChronicleMegan Kruse’s first novel startles in its capacity for complexity, showing not only the tempestuous nature of family love, but also the near-impossible task of breaking free of it ... The passages in Silver are some of the most compelling in the narrative, Jackson’s loneliness surrounded by dark mountains and cigarette smoke, wondering where his mother and sister are and how he could have betrayed them ... A blistering story of lightness and darkness, the power of family and the capacity we have to hurt those closest to us.
Ali Smith
RaveThe San Francisco ChronicleThe transitions are swift and the structure is fluid, telling a story and then changing the way we’ve just read it with phrases like: ‘But none of the above has happened. Not yet, anyway.’ Because of the novel’s shifting nature, we know George’s mother as both alive and dead … Because you will have to choose one, your experience of the novel will be different depending on which story you start with. But either way, the revelations and conclusions will be the same. How to Be Both indeed works both ways, demonstrating not only the power of art itself but also the mastery of Smith’s prose.
