fionnualalirsdottir 's review for:

Autumn by Ali Smith

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What are you reading?

A tale of two people.

Tell me about it.

It's a book full of leaves, green ones and brown ones. And white ones too, of course.

Ha! But seriously, describe it to me.

It's a book with a hole in the middle.

Now you're just being absurd.

No, wait. There's really as much absence as presence in this book.

Tell me what's in it, not what's not in it.

It's a book of fragments that fit together in odd arrangements.

Give me an example of the way the fragments fit together.

There's a sister who doesn't exist and a sister who no longer exists.

Not bad. Give me another fragment.

There are people who use the word Home when they really mean Away, as in Go ----.

Oh, right. Brexit.

There are lies about lying about lies about lying.

Please give me something that's not about politicians.

There's a time that's really a place.

Give me something less abstract.

A giant soldier squashes a woman with his boot.

Argh!! Don't tell me anything else about this book.

Would it be ok if it wasn't a giant soldier but just a man, and he squashed a mouse not a person?

No! Definitely not! Maybe you could tell me what isn't in the book instead of giving me such freaky fragments.

====== ……… ======= ……… ====== ………

Why are you holding your breath like that?

Because the unsaid in this book lies in the gaps between breaths.

Normal people don't have gaps in their breathing.

A person who is breathing his last might—if he had enough luck to die leisurely.

So what do those gaps tell about?

The black hole in twentieth century history.

Just say the Holocaust.

Did you know 'holo' means 'whole' and 'caust' means destroyed by fire?

So?

So the entire word means an absence in a presence, the 'hole' in 'whole'.

Wait a minute. Is that interpretation of the term 'Holocaust' in the book?

Well, no. But you can read it between the leaves...