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I’ve given both Autumn and Winter four stars. I’m confident they will both be five on a re-read. There is so much depth and nuance and Smith plays with words, imagery and symbolism in a pleasingly circular fashion, like something hewn by Barbara Hepworth’s hands. I’m looking forward to re-reading Smith’s every word.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m sure it’s very clever and everything, but I found this interminable. Soldiered on for about a third then quit, feeling inadequate.
wowieeee hou echt zo erg van ali smith’s manier van vertellen! zo speels met taal en toch ook echt serieus en emotioneel. wel ietssss moeilijker inkomen dan autumn (ook door de mega lange hoofdstukken) maar het was het meer dan waard!!
“She put it on the table. She looked at it. She nodded.
But she felt for it. She didn’t want it to grow cold. She picked it up again, tucked it under her clothes on the skin of her abdomen and held it against her.
The round piece of stone the size of a small head lay there, did nothing. The nothing it did was intimate.
How could something be this uncomplicated?
How could it be, at the same time, so mysterious?
Look. It was nothing but a stone.
What a relief.”
“She put it on the table. She looked at it. She nodded.
But she felt for it. She didn’t want it to grow cold. She picked it up again, tucked it under her clothes on the skin of her abdomen and held it against her.
The round piece of stone the size of a small head lay there, did nothing. The nothing it did was intimate.
How could something be this uncomplicated?
How could it be, at the same time, so mysterious?
Look. It was nothing but a stone.
What a relief.”
This second book in the seasons series is even weirder than the first. It starts off with a character who believes a child’s decapitated head is floating around her house and following her everywhere she goes.
The writing is quirky, following no punctuation rules or format, but the reader adjusts. Other characters enter the story, and it all fits together in the end.
It is a commentary on our world, and also of the people who play a part in it’s upheaval. Past and present.
I ended up enjoying it. It is a fast read once you get into it. I would rate it a 3.5, rounded up here.
The writing is quirky, following no punctuation rules or format, but the reader adjusts. Other characters enter the story, and it all fits together in the end.
It is a commentary on our world, and also of the people who play a part in it’s upheaval. Past and present.
I ended up enjoying it. It is a fast read once you get into it. I would rate it a 3.5, rounded up here.
challenging
reflective
fast-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
This wasn't for me. Maybe I need some more years on my back to appreciate it but for now I was confused and/or bored for most of it. The cynicism of the story and its characters was too much for me to handle at the moment.
Might revisit and re-read at a later date.
Might revisit and re-read at a later date.
reflective
medium-paced
I discovered Ali Smith in a city trip to Edinburgh last year (in a bookstore dedicated to female writers no less), read the first two of her seasonal quartet novels, and I am already a forever fan.
What drew me in initially (besides the pretty covers of the books, let’s be honest) was one of the reviews on the back of “Autumn” that said Smith was a kind of contemporary Virginia Woolf.
I love Woolf’s writing – her speaking about complex feelings I recognize but would never have known how to express, her stream-of-consciousness and how she makes the seasons, the weather and the times and places part of her stories and her characters themselves.
Speaking of “the seasons” – Smith’s quartet does indeed share some of these characteristics and at the same time, is something completely unique.
The novels are full of beautiful little wordplays, references to art and literature, loveable and intelligent characters, tragic misunderstandings and estrangements, unconventional relationships and between all of that a sense of urgency for the problems of the world we live in (migration crisis, extremist right-wing politics, global warming) and what underlies and accompanies them (fear, information overload, power, greed).
Smith’s novels are an active force. Or in less flashy words: an entertaining, heart-warming, thought-provoking, tragic and life-changing read.
What drew me in initially (besides the pretty covers of the books, let’s be honest) was one of the reviews on the back of “Autumn” that said Smith was a kind of contemporary Virginia Woolf.
I love Woolf’s writing – her speaking about complex feelings I recognize but would never have known how to express, her stream-of-consciousness and how she makes the seasons, the weather and the times and places part of her stories and her characters themselves.
Speaking of “the seasons” – Smith’s quartet does indeed share some of these characteristics and at the same time, is something completely unique.
The novels are full of beautiful little wordplays, references to art and literature, loveable and intelligent characters, tragic misunderstandings and estrangements, unconventional relationships and between all of that a sense of urgency for the problems of the world we live in (migration crisis, extremist right-wing politics, global warming) and what underlies and accompanies them (fear, information overload, power, greed).
Smith’s novels are an active force. Or in less flashy words: an entertaining, heart-warming, thought-provoking, tragic and life-changing read.
while it wasn't nearly as good as Autumn, i still quite liked this. wish there was more of Lux, every time she spoke it was golden