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slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
"He thought it was because he was too old. He was older, and compared to the age I was I did think he was ancient. He was in his sixties then. Well, now I know that your sixties feel the same as all the other ages, and your seventies. You never stop being yourself on the inside, whatever age people think you are by looking at you from the outside."
As personagens deste livro têm um encontro marcado: a noite de Natal. Poderíamos pensar que são família, e na verdade são-no, mas apenas no sentido mais literal. Pois de facto acabam por ser estranhos. Ao longo de três dias estas relações vão-se estreitando, mas será o suficiente para descongelar anos de relações esfriadas?
Este é o segundo volume do Seasonal Quartet. Esta história é mais política e mais feroz do que Autumn, o primeiro livro da série, sendo que, desta vez, o motivo subjacente é o Brexit e as suas repercussões na actualidade do Reino Unido. E aqui Ali Smith mostra o seu lado genial: a narrativa centra-se numa personagem chamada Lux, uma imigrante que acaba por saber mais sobre o país e a cultura inglesa do que os próprios residentes do país, mas cujo futuro é incerto, desconhecendo se será deportada. E as personagens passam o Natal em Cornwall, um dos condados mais pobres do Reino Unido e que recebeu mais fundos da União Europeia, mas que acabou por votar a favor do Brexit.
Complementando esta crítica política, Ali Smith tem o dom de reparar naquilo que inicialmente poderá parecer insignificante e torná-lo em algo de uma beleza incomensurável. Um exemplo é a marca de uma rosa deixada no meio de um livro de Shakespeare. Em tempos essa rosa significou algo para alguém e agora a autora volta a imbuir esse gesto de um novo significado.
Gostei muito desta história e mal posso esperar para que Março chegue e possa ler Spring! Contudo, até agora, o meu preferido continua a ser Autumn, que desconfio que terá sempre um lugar especial no meu coração de leitor. Já o disse antes e volto a reiterar: tenho de ler tudo o que Ali Smith alguma vez escreveu!
As personagens deste livro têm um encontro marcado: a noite de Natal. Poderíamos pensar que são família, e na verdade são-no, mas apenas no sentido mais literal. Pois de facto acabam por ser estranhos. Ao longo de três dias estas relações vão-se estreitando, mas será o suficiente para descongelar anos de relações esfriadas?
Este é o segundo volume do Seasonal Quartet. Esta história é mais política e mais feroz do que Autumn, o primeiro livro da série, sendo que, desta vez, o motivo subjacente é o Brexit e as suas repercussões na actualidade do Reino Unido. E aqui Ali Smith mostra o seu lado genial: a narrativa centra-se numa personagem chamada Lux, uma imigrante que acaba por saber mais sobre o país e a cultura inglesa do que os próprios residentes do país, mas cujo futuro é incerto, desconhecendo se será deportada. E as personagens passam o Natal em Cornwall, um dos condados mais pobres do Reino Unido e que recebeu mais fundos da União Europeia, mas que acabou por votar a favor do Brexit.
Complementando esta crítica política, Ali Smith tem o dom de reparar naquilo que inicialmente poderá parecer insignificante e torná-lo em algo de uma beleza incomensurável. Um exemplo é a marca de uma rosa deixada no meio de um livro de Shakespeare. Em tempos essa rosa significou algo para alguém e agora a autora volta a imbuir esse gesto de um novo significado.
Gostei muito desta história e mal posso esperar para que Março chegue e possa ler Spring! Contudo, até agora, o meu preferido continua a ser Autumn, que desconfio que terá sempre um lugar especial no meu coração de leitor. Já o disse antes e volto a reiterar: tenho de ler tudo o que Ali Smith alguma vez escreveu!
hmmm i’m not sure about this one… 3? 4 at times? so 3.5 for now
I enjoyed Autumn more than Winter as I make my way through these four books. I sometimes fine the style hard to engage with and it makes it harder to get lost in the book. Poignant political snapshots, some interesting characters and as someone who grew up in the west country, I enjoyed the Cornish setting too.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I noticed this one on Audible, so I purchased it, despite having wished for it on NetGalley (but who knows if and when I'll hear back from the publishers).
Anyway...
Winter is the second offering in the SeasonS quartet. As it was the case with Autumn, it's quite interesting, very contemporary and a bit confusing at times.
(I'm not 100% sure I understood the symbolism, especially when it came to a child's detached head seen by sixty-something-year-old, Sophia. Was it mental illness, loneliness, dementia? Not sure I elucidated that aspect of the novel, if any of you did, do let me know. I guess it can be interpreted in many ways.)
Sophia's son, Art, is a twenty-something, kind of clueless guy who's very contented with himself, one of those people who doesn't stand for anything, he doesn't hate anything, but neither cares or loves anything. He's got a blog, Art in Nature, and works for a copyright company, being paid to dob in copyright infringers he discovers while surfing the internet.
His girlfriend, Charlotte leaves him, so in order to avoid explaining to his mother about his now ex-girlfriend, Art hires Lux, a girl he met at a bus stop, to pretend to be his girlfriend. Lux is a very interesting girl, who turns out to be very intelligent, knowledgeable and resourceful. She's Croatian-Canadian, but had to interrupt her studies after running out of money. Thanks to the instability brought on by Brexit, she's unable to find decently paid jobs, so she sleeps wherever she can find shelter, including in libraries or on friends' sofas. Lux challenges the oblivious Art, who despite writing about nature, never goes in nature. Art's nature is all fake.
It was obvious in Autumn where Smith stands when it comes to Brexit. It's plenty apparent in this novel as well, although in a more subtle way.
Again, Smith brings to our attention another female artist, this time, the sculptor, Barbara Hepworth. While the name was unknown to me, when looking up her sculptures, some looked familiar.
There's plenty to analyse and chew on in this novel, despite its small size.
It's not perfect, but it's oh so interesting.
I'm looking forward to reading Spring.
NB: Melody Grove, the narrator of this book was excellent.
Anyway...
Winter is the second offering in the SeasonS quartet. As it was the case with Autumn, it's quite interesting, very contemporary and a bit confusing at times.
(I'm not 100% sure I understood the symbolism, especially when it came to a child's detached head seen by sixty-something-year-old, Sophia. Was it mental illness, loneliness, dementia? Not sure I elucidated that aspect of the novel, if any of you did, do let me know. I guess it can be interpreted in many ways.)
Sophia's son, Art, is a twenty-something, kind of clueless guy who's very contented with himself, one of those people who doesn't stand for anything, he doesn't hate anything, but neither cares or loves anything. He's got a blog, Art in Nature, and works for a copyright company, being paid to dob in copyright infringers he discovers while surfing the internet.
His girlfriend, Charlotte leaves him, so in order to avoid explaining to his mother about his now ex-girlfriend, Art hires Lux, a girl he met at a bus stop, to pretend to be his girlfriend. Lux is a very interesting girl, who turns out to be very intelligent, knowledgeable and resourceful. She's Croatian-Canadian, but had to interrupt her studies after running out of money. Thanks to the instability brought on by Brexit, she's unable to find decently paid jobs, so she sleeps wherever she can find shelter, including in libraries or on friends' sofas. Lux challenges the oblivious Art, who despite writing about nature, never goes in nature. Art's nature is all fake.
It was obvious in Autumn where Smith stands when it comes to Brexit. It's plenty apparent in this novel as well, although in a more subtle way.
Again, Smith brings to our attention another female artist, this time, the sculptor, Barbara Hepworth. While the name was unknown to me, when looking up her sculptures, some looked familiar.
There's plenty to analyse and chew on in this novel, despite its small size.
It's not perfect, but it's oh so interesting.
I'm looking forward to reading Spring.
NB: Melody Grove, the narrator of this book was excellent.
Told in a scattered way, the story left too much unresolved or undeveloped for me. I'm almost certainly missing some symbolic sleight of hand, the knowledge of which would improve my enjoyment of the book.
Sophia appears to be gripped by dementia or clinically depressed and the other characters operate as if with no knowledge of mental ill health. She is sufficiently intelligent to run a successful business and at once dangerously incompetent. It left me feeling I had accidentally skipped a chapter that explained this contradiction.
The story of sibling emnity is haltingly teased over the course of the novel, and I'm not sure I successfully followed it. This may well be down to my own halting reading of the book or my ignorance of Cymbeline which which I've neither seen nor read.
Our main protagonist is a (polite words fail me) tosser. He stumbles around in a cloud of self deceit and is incapable of glimpsing much beyond it. I guess we're meant to see him as a cipher for childhood trauma, himself a Hepworth statue with a hole where an important part of himself should be, but the construction of this beguiling metaphor isn't quite enough to make me care.
The writing is super - it's Ali Smith after all - but I'll have to read the darn thing again before I can say the same of the book as a whole.
Sophia appears to be gripped by dementia or clinically depressed and the other characters operate as if with no knowledge of mental ill health. She is sufficiently intelligent to run a successful business and at once dangerously incompetent. It left me feeling I had accidentally skipped a chapter that explained this contradiction.
The story of sibling emnity is haltingly teased over the course of the novel, and I'm not sure I successfully followed it. This may well be down to my own halting reading of the book or my ignorance of Cymbeline which which I've neither seen nor read.
Our main protagonist is a (polite words fail me) tosser. He stumbles around in a cloud of self deceit and is incapable of glimpsing much beyond it. I guess we're meant to see him as a cipher for childhood trauma, himself a Hepworth statue with a hole where an important part of himself should be, but the construction of this beguiling metaphor isn't quite enough to make me care.
The writing is super - it's Ali Smith after all - but I'll have to read the darn thing again before I can say the same of the book as a whole.
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love Ali Smith's writing- it intrigues me, it's lyrical and so fluid, but I feel like I just did not get this book. By the end of Autumn, the book prior in the series, I felt introduced to a world of characters, got to know them, and felt content with their developments. In Winter, I did not love the characters as much and found myself confused much of the time between character chapters and reflective chapters. I think a reread would benefit my understanding but for now the initial rating stands pretty mid-level.