Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays

"[Changing My Mind's] quirky pleasures derive from Smith's own critical persona—always bold, jauntily self-reflexive and amusing—and her inspired cultural references, which include both Simone Weil and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'" —The New York Times "Changing My Mind falls together with a startling focus. The book isn't just a group of gently argued judgments and critical reinterpretations; it's an unsettled look at the systems of thought that make those judgments and interpretations possible. . . . The wild eclecticism of Changing My Mind reflects, if anything, the versatility that Smith embraces on the page—taking up the mantle of the theorist, the memoirist, the pop movie critic as circumstance requires." —Slate"[Changing My Mind] offers the sort of insight that will not only enlighten fans but should provide plenty of illumination for anyone who appreciates fiction and words and the interplay between writer and readers as much as Smith plainly does. . . . [The essays] are written so incisively, and with so much empathy and warm-hearted humour, that they show how reading has made Smith the writer she is." —Kirkus Reviews