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A review by amyvl93
Summer by Ali Smith
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Summer is the final piece in the Seasonal quartet, and it pulls together strands from her previous novels to create a nice ending (sort of - if we ignore Companion Piece) to this great state of the nation series.
In this novel we meet Sacha, a teenage girl who passionately cares about the climate crisis who lives with her brother Robert (a victim of cyber bulling who has an obsession with scientific theories and being a devil's advocate) and her mother, an unsuccessful actress who voted for Brexit and honestly just isn't very political. Her dad and his new girlfriend live next door. A chance encounter sees them meet Art and Charlotte on a beach - working on their nature website. We are also reunited with Daniel, whilst he reflects on his experiences of internment in England during World War 2.
This is a novel written in the shadow of and then experience of Covid-19, with all of the appropriate anxiety and isolation that you would expect. Smith pulls in numerous references, including the Black Lives Matter movement, Greta Thurnberg, call backs to Barbara Hepworth and the Italian artist Lorenza Mazzetti - as well as Shakespeare, Chaplin and probably many others I wasn't cultured enough to pick up on!
When I started reading this quartet I felt like I was perhaps not smart enough to engage with Smith's writing, but as the quartet has gone I've found myself more and more engaged in them. My ranking is probably 1) Spring, 2) Winter, 3) Summer & 4) Autumn. I would highly recommend picking these up.
In this novel we meet Sacha, a teenage girl who passionately cares about the climate crisis who lives with her brother Robert (a victim of cyber bulling who has an obsession with scientific theories and being a devil's advocate) and her mother, an unsuccessful actress who voted for Brexit and honestly just isn't very political. Her dad and his new girlfriend live next door. A chance encounter sees them meet Art and Charlotte on a beach - working on their nature website. We are also reunited with Daniel, whilst he reflects on his experiences of internment in England during World War 2.
This is a novel written in the shadow of and then experience of Covid-19, with all of the appropriate anxiety and isolation that you would expect. Smith pulls in numerous references, including the Black Lives Matter movement, Greta Thurnberg, call backs to Barbara Hepworth and the Italian artist Lorenza Mazzetti - as well as Shakespeare, Chaplin and probably many others I wasn't cultured enough to pick up on!
When I started reading this quartet I felt like I was perhaps not smart enough to engage with Smith's writing, but as the quartet has gone I've found myself more and more engaged in them. My ranking is probably 1) Spring, 2) Winter, 3) Summer & 4) Autumn. I would highly recommend picking these up.