How to be both is a novel all about art's versatility. Borrowing from painting's fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it's a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. There's a renaissance artist of the 1460s. There's the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real - and all life's givens get given a second chance.
Claire's Review 4 of 5 Stars
Firstly a big thank you to Penguin for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. How to Be Both made the shortlist for the Booker Prize.
This book is divided into 2 halves. One telling the story of George, a modern day teenager (Camera) and Francesco a 15th Century artist (Eyes). Each part can be read in any order as the stories mirror each other.
This is a very original idea and I feel this really needs to be read a few times in different orders to truly pick up on all the meanings and parallels between the stories. Overall it was an enjoyable interesting read.
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