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challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Both in terms of its characters and its political themes, Winter felt less refined than Autumn. I still greatly enjoyed reading it, but felt the lack of solid anchoring hampered it a little
This series makes me curious--it's hard to follow but still intriguing. I needed another GR review to see the link back to Autumn. Now I will have to read Spring to see where the story line goes. In Winter, Art goes to his mother's country home for Christmas with a hired girlfriend since his just dumped him. His mother is not well so he calls in his estranged aunt for help. The poetic/prose mashup weaves themes of pesticide poisoning, nuclear war/protests etc. along with some discussion of the sculptor Barbara Hepworth. It ends with a personally hopeful note within the sadly typical global doom.
FL: "God was dead: to begin with."
IQ: “You never stop being yourself on the inside, whatever age people think you are by looking at you from the outside.”
FL: "God was dead: to begin with."
IQ: “You never stop being yourself on the inside, whatever age people think you are by looking at you from the outside.”
This book is still indeed very interesting just like Autumn. I read this book at the start of winter but it took me a while until I managed finishing the book. Smith's writing style is an awe to me. She is a genius. The language play and her writing style is literary beyond.
Similarities I found in Autumn and Winter are the character's connections. Older characters (Sophia & iris) and younger characters (Art & Lux) how to interact and solve their problems. It talks a lot about Christmas, not at a particular time but Christmas through times. Other than that it's the jumping time and plot that are similar to her previous book.
Similarities I found in Autumn and Winter are the character's connections. Older characters (Sophia & iris) and younger characters (Art & Lux) how to interact and solve their problems. It talks a lot about Christmas, not at a particular time but Christmas through times. Other than that it's the jumping time and plot that are similar to her previous book.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I spent a long time being afraid of Ali Smith and if I’m honest partly I picked up Autumn not so much because I want to read it, as because I want to be the kind of person who would read it.
But! An unexpected plot twist: I ended up loving it. So I decided to read the rest of the Seasonal Quartet over the course of the year, in tune with the seasons.
One of the reasons that I loved Autumn was the way it captured that season so beautifully and the decline in the weather mirrored the decline of one of the main characters. I didn’t feel that way about Winter. It almost felt like it could have been set in any season, apart from the fact that it hinges on Christmas. Which of course for us in the Southern Hemisphere isn’t even a wintry thing. There were fleeting references to snowdrops or to cold, but overall I felt like it was a story that she had allocated to the season rather than a story that arose from the season.
But I still liked a lot about Winter. The word play, the sense of not quite knowing what’s going on while you’re reading, the fabulous character that was Lux and the way she affected the people around her.
Bring on Spring! (In every sense).
But! An unexpected plot twist: I ended up loving it. So I decided to read the rest of the Seasonal Quartet over the course of the year, in tune with the seasons.
One of the reasons that I loved Autumn was the way it captured that season so beautifully and the decline in the weather mirrored the decline of one of the main characters. I didn’t feel that way about Winter. It almost felt like it could have been set in any season, apart from the fact that it hinges on Christmas. Which of course for us in the Southern Hemisphere isn’t even a wintry thing. There were fleeting references to snowdrops or to cold, but overall I felt like it was a story that she had allocated to the season rather than a story that arose from the season.
But I still liked a lot about Winter. The word play, the sense of not quite knowing what’s going on while you’re reading, the fabulous character that was Lux and the way she affected the people around her.
Bring on Spring! (In every sense).
While I enjoy this series, they don't resonate with me that much
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
izredno chilly knjiga, popolna za hladne, zasnezene dni
a sem cel cas razumela vse, kar se dogaja? ne, but it was thourouggly enjoyable and thought provoking
komaaj cakam na naslednjo (mislim, da mi je bila celo bolj vsec kot spring)
a sem cel cas razumela vse, kar se dogaja? ne, but it was thourouggly enjoyable and thought provoking
komaaj cakam na naslednjo (mislim, da mi je bila celo bolj vsec kot spring)
3,5 ⭐
TW: Homicídio, Saúde Mental, Relações familiares desestruturadas
Os dias gélidos de inverno tendem a mortificar-nos, na mesma medida em que despertam, em nós, um certo instinto de sobrevivência, uma certa vontade de procurar conforto, ainda que possamos movimentar-nos sobre o caos - físico e emocional. E foi nesta espécie de limbo que avancei na leitura. Porque se, por um lado, existem fios soltos e complexos, que não estou certa de ter compreendido na totalidade [quer em relação à mensagem, quer em relação à relevância no texto], por outro, não é menos verdade que fiquei maravilhada com o processo narrativo, com a escrita distinta da autora e com a abordagem de assuntos tão importantes como o roubo de identidade, as crises políticas e morais, os refugiados e as relações familiares. Em simultâneo, leva-nos a refletir sobre a forma como observamos o mundo, como olhamos para nós e qual o papel que a arte pode exercer neste plano com inúmeras rotas alternativas.
TW: Homicídio, Saúde Mental, Relações familiares desestruturadas
Os dias gélidos de inverno tendem a mortificar-nos, na mesma medida em que despertam, em nós, um certo instinto de sobrevivência, uma certa vontade de procurar conforto, ainda que possamos movimentar-nos sobre o caos - físico e emocional. E foi nesta espécie de limbo que avancei na leitura. Porque se, por um lado, existem fios soltos e complexos, que não estou certa de ter compreendido na totalidade [quer em relação à mensagem, quer em relação à relevância no texto], por outro, não é menos verdade que fiquei maravilhada com o processo narrativo, com a escrita distinta da autora e com a abordagem de assuntos tão importantes como o roubo de identidade, as crises políticas e morais, os refugiados e as relações familiares. Em simultâneo, leva-nos a refletir sobre a forma como observamos o mundo, como olhamos para nós e qual o papel que a arte pode exercer neste plano com inúmeras rotas alternativas.
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced