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caitlins_bookshelf 's review for:
Spring
by Ali Smith
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-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
so this is book three of ali smith's seasonal quartet and the first one I've read! they're standalones that can be read in any order but do sort of link together too.
it took me a little while to get into this because it's not a particularly linear narrative. but once I'd got used to it I really enjoyed it! (and everything also slots together nicely by the end). we mainly focus on a man called richard, a film maker mourning the loss of his friend. he's currently considering a project that imagines a relationship between katherine mansfield and rilke. as he reaches a bit of a crisis he ends up meeting the other set of characters we're introduced to part way through. brit, who works at an immigration detention centre, and florence, a 12 year old child with seemingly magical powers of persuasion. both of these sets of characters brought up different discussions and it was really interesting (and satisfying) when they crossed paths.
this was quite a political book and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. one of its main themes was immigration and it took us inside a fictional (though I'm presuming decently, upsettingly, accurate) immigrant detention centre via brit who worked there. I will admit that my knowledge around this topic was very sparse so I found these sections pretty eye opening. and there were lots of more general social commentary as well.
this was a book that really took its time exploring things. it went on weird tangents, it had a lot of literature and history references that I maybe didn't fully understand all of but I enjoyed learning and I guess maybe that's how I feel about the book as a whole? some of the finer meanings may have been lost on me but in general it was an interesting, very poetic, thought provoking read. I liked that it took some quite big topics and zoomed right in. and from what I can tell, the theme of these books in general is the current state of britain shown by a few every day people, which is pretty cool. I'm excited to carry on with the quartet and I'm gonna try find the others second hand in time to read them each in their respective season this year!
it took me a little while to get into this because it's not a particularly linear narrative. but once I'd got used to it I really enjoyed it! (and everything also slots together nicely by the end). we mainly focus on a man called richard, a film maker mourning the loss of his friend. he's currently considering a project that imagines a relationship between katherine mansfield and rilke. as he reaches a bit of a crisis he ends up meeting the other set of characters we're introduced to part way through. brit, who works at an immigration detention centre, and florence, a 12 year old child with seemingly magical powers of persuasion. both of these sets of characters brought up different discussions and it was really interesting (and satisfying) when they crossed paths.
this was quite a political book and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. one of its main themes was immigration and it took us inside a fictional (though I'm presuming decently, upsettingly, accurate) immigrant detention centre via brit who worked there. I will admit that my knowledge around this topic was very sparse so I found these sections pretty eye opening. and there were lots of more general social commentary as well.
this was a book that really took its time exploring things. it went on weird tangents, it had a lot of literature and history references that I maybe didn't fully understand all of but I enjoyed learning and I guess maybe that's how I feel about the book as a whole? some of the finer meanings may have been lost on me but in general it was an interesting, very poetic, thought provoking read. I liked that it took some quite big topics and zoomed right in. and from what I can tell, the theme of these books in general is the current state of britain shown by a few every day people, which is pretty cool. I'm excited to carry on with the quartet and I'm gonna try find the others second hand in time to read them each in their respective season this year!