xceltictea 's review for:

Winter by Ali Smith

4.0

emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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ind it hilarious that as I was writing the review of this book, the Goodreads app crashed and I lost everything I had written. The exact same thing that happened with “Autumn” when I read it…last year…? Two years ago…? It’s like Goodreads wants to stop the passing of the seasons for me. Or perhaps the passing of time…

My review will never be as good as the previous one, or as the one of Autumn (what a shame to open the book page and not see the super long review I had written, sigh) especially as I am shaking with a temperature as I am writing this (in true winter fashion for sure), but I will try. 

What stands out to me the most about Winter is its use of symbols, pristine, clear as snow. The same oneiric elements that characterised Autumn are present here, only, less confusing, less kaleidoscopic, less phantasmagoric. Or maybe I just got used to Smith’s manifold style, her ability to pack a punch and evoke several different things within a couple of words. 

Cymbeline. A play that has always fascinated me. The petal of the rose in the folio edition in Toronto’s library, the ghost petal, Carry Greenham Home, the Greenfell tower fire, the Trump administration, Shakespeare, Elvis and so much more, it’s incredible how a fiction can be political whilst remaining utterly fictional, profound, never heavy. It’s something not even D.H.Lawrence mastered, I still remember those boring, political sections that took the enjoyment out of Lady Chatterley’s Lover for me. And yet I love how many things Smith makes me discover about the world, (the perfume trials in Autumn is another great example that has stayed with me),  about contemporary Britain, how much she educates me, nudging me gently in the right direction, inscribing current social and political events in a narrative framework that remains exquisitely literary, fictional in the true sense of the world, historical as far as history of art is concerned, even though the featured female artist of this book is featured much less, which I appreciated as I had started to find that somewhat tedious in Autumn, whereas here there is plenty of space given to develop other themes. And what a joy to see Daniel from autumn make a come back! Not to mention, the cherry on top was to see John Keats mentioned, my beloved, and mentioned again  towards the end, to become the spokesperson of this eternal debate of politics vs art, a contradiction which Smith clearly appears to have resolved in her beautiful, masterful works. Masterful is the right word as Ali Smith is truly a master of words, and I believe that no contemporary lover of literature can truly define himself/herself as a literary expert or truly interested in literature without having read any of her works. There is just no one who writes more fictional fictional than Ali Smith. Her use of language, symbols and motifs, so rich, seamlessly weaved with universal themes and cultural references…it sounds like a recipe for disaster and it ends up being the most delicious cocktail.  

I am sure it will be hard to surpass oneself, but I am looking forward to read Spring regardless and finish what I had started…two years ago? Oh how fast time, and the seasons, pass…