Book Review

Portable Magic – An enchanting look at the relationship between page and reader

Emma Smith’s new tome persuasively suggests that we are both reflected and moulded every time we read a book

The mysterious, occasionally dangerous sway that books hold over us is central to Emma Smith’s Portable Magic. ‘All books have agency and power in the real world,’ she writes, ‘the power to summon demons and to despatch them.’ This famous photo of Marilyn Monroe reading James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses was taken in 1955. Picture: Eve Arnold/Magnum Photos

There is a famous photograph of Marilyn Monroe that shows her reading James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses. Taken in 1955, it captures the actress sitting on a children’s roundabout, wearing a striped swimming costume with her knees drawn up towards her chest. With most of the pages resting against her left forearm, she is apparently enthralled by the novel’s final section, possibly Molly Bloom’s celebrated monologue. For a generation of movie and literary fans, it was ...