peita_hansen's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
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
4.25
infrequency's review
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
tilda_bookworm's review
4.75
Another absolute belter from Ali Smith. I flew through this one and found it to be more of a page-turner than the previous two in the series. I liked the ghostly invisibility of the refugee child (which almost read like a parody of paranormal horror to me which I guess reflects in a tristy kind of way the real horror of the realities of what people are put through to protect borders). Enjoyed reading about this side of being a refugee because the news seems to suggest that the boat deaths are the only bad bit and if they could cross safely (or not cross at all) all would be well.
asifromancewasborn's review against another edition
3.0
• Read for Literary Studies. I didn’t know what to expect, because I hadn’t heard the name of the writer ever before, - but I guess I can say I’m a bit disappointed. For me it felt like this book was all over the place. She was writing about Trump, Rainer Rilke, Katherine Mansfield, Brexit, World War II, etc. All those topics randomly thrown in there just didn’t do it for me.
kglas's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I just finished reading the whole seasonal quartet, and here is my experience with some recommendations.
1) It's definitely best to read the seasonal quartet in the order im which the books were published: autumn - winter - spring - summer. Even though there are new characters at the heart of each novel, it is such a delight to re-encounter some loveable ones in more than one of them. Especially, half of the fun of reading Summer at the end is recognising the characters and stories from previous seasons.
2) I read Autumn twice. I finished it and realised that for understanding more deeply I needed to read it again , and that was fully worth it. I may also re-read some of the quartet at some point and I am sure I'll keep discovering connections and passages that I haven't realised so far.
3) I regularly checked out the references to artists and other writers, looking at their work online. That made the reading experience more complete and made me get to know some exciting works of art I'd had no idea about before reading these books.
To sum up, I adore Ali Smith's masterful writing style, her wordplay, the topics she picks up (female art, migration, the Brexit, climate change, COVID 19, activism, ...) and the loving, caring characters she has created.
A must-read for anyone who loves good and sometimes complex novels.
1) It's definitely best to read the seasonal quartet in the order im which the books were published: autumn - winter - spring - summer. Even though there are new characters at the heart of each novel, it is such a delight to re-encounter some loveable ones in more than one of them. Especially, half of the fun of reading Summer at the end is recognising the characters and stories from previous seasons.
2) I read Autumn twice. I finished it and realised that for understanding more deeply I needed to read it again , and that was fully worth it. I may also re-read some of the quartet at some point and I am sure I'll keep discovering connections and passages that I haven't realised so far.
3) I regularly checked out the references to artists and other writers, looking at their work online. That made the reading experience more complete and made me get to know some exciting works of art I'd had no idea about before reading these books.
To sum up, I adore Ali Smith's masterful writing style, her wordplay, the topics she picks up (female art, migration, the Brexit, climate change, COVID 19, activism, ...) and the loving, caring characters she has created.
A must-read for anyone who loves good and sometimes complex novels.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Confinement, Xenophobia, Grief, and Suicide attempt
jessisbookshelf's review against another edition
I really wanted to get into this book and maybe I'll pick it up another time, but it just didn't really catch me unfortunately
sybr's review
2.0
Too preachy and pretentious. I could feel the author wear the mask of every character she wanted to, only to express her social commentary, which related to very well known and criticised subjects. As a result, the authors' opinion on them was not that meaningful or powerful. Do you really need a 400 page book to realise systemic refugee abuse and sexism are existent and bad ?
On the other hand, the characters' interactions with each other was so realistic and brilliantly done, that they made up for the absence of plot at some points. The dialogs were witty and honest, had the quality of capturing the reader's attention. Another great aspect was the way she fused literary and visual artists' work with themes of the novel.
Smith's novel felt like a collage, at times annoyingly disjointed and too challenging to correlate its different themes. Being a collage, you admire parts of it and reject others, and this book is just that : parts of pure brilliance lost in the middle of a disjointed plot, that serves as a vessel for thinly disguised social commentary.
On the other hand, the characters' interactions with each other was so realistic and brilliantly done, that they made up for the absence of plot at some points. The dialogs were witty and honest, had the quality of capturing the reader's attention. Another great aspect was the way she fused literary and visual artists' work with themes of the novel.
Smith's novel felt like a collage, at times annoyingly disjointed and too challenging to correlate its different themes. Being a collage, you admire parts of it and reject others, and this book is just that : parts of pure brilliance lost in the middle of a disjointed plot, that serves as a vessel for thinly disguised social commentary.