Ahhhh it felt lovely to be wrapped back up in the wandering playful prose of Ali Smith! Her seasonal quartet is proving very strong for me, and although I didn’t love Winter quite as much as I loved Autumn, it was still a fab read and I cannot wait to see what Spring has in store!
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This one explores the relationships and lives of two estranged sisters, one a sharp, shrewd ex-businesswoman, the other a quirky anti-nuclear protestor, and their son/nephew as they are finally all reunited one Christmas. They are also joined, indeed almost tethered together, by Lux, a quasi homeless Croatian woman Art has paid to be his fake girlfriend for the holiday (it’s actually less creepy than it sounds, but I still didn’t like Art very much), and, in classic Ali Smith style, this stranger ends up having a profound impact on the lives of the other three.
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What I love about her perhaps the most is her ability to weave complex issues like politics, nuclear technology, the refugee crisis, into a narrative which is intimate and personal, so that it doesn’t just turn into a sermon preaching about the dangers or morality of one topic or another. It’s natural, insightful, and always 100% relevant, and I do think these books will be great to look back on in 50 years when people are studying all the shit going down in our time from a historical and social perspective.
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But as I already mentioned, I wasn’t all that convinced by the character of Art. I found him a little flat, a lot annoying, and I just preferred reading the parts more focussed on the three women!