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A review by jacki_f
Winter by Ali Smith
3.0
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).