A review by samarakroeger
Summer by Ali Smith
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.75
And this is the book that brings all the pieces together at last. SO glad I decided to read each book at the beginning of its designated season over the last year. Each book in the quartet was better than the last (3.25, 3.75, 4.25, now 4.75) and I finally feel like I understand Ali Smith’s vision. Even more impressive is how quickly she wrote these books and got them out into the world — an exercise in contemporary literature that I don’t think anyone has quite pulled off before. She can’t have planned the books out, necessarily, because they all deal with contemporary issues as they are happening. This is probably the first true pandemic book, set mostly in March-May 2020 and published in August 2020.
The characters here are from Autumn and Winter (mostly), and they’re MUCH easier to pick up on (instead of vague references to the other books in Winter and Spring). The thematic focus is on borders, like Spring. The important literary references are made very clear here, too, with Grace reflecting on performing both Shakespeare and Dickens works in her youth. The important female artists get nods in Summer as well.
Anyways, can’t wait to reread these and annotate them with the knowledge of the series as a whole. Certainly a series that is far more than the sum of its parts and was well worth continuing despite not loving Autumn.
I’ll certainly be picking up Companion Piece soon as well.
The characters here are from Autumn and Winter (mostly), and they’re MUCH easier to pick up on (instead of vague references to the other books in Winter and Spring). The thematic focus is on borders, like Spring. The important literary references are made very clear here, too, with Grace reflecting on performing both Shakespeare and Dickens works in her youth. The important female artists get nods in Summer as well.
Anyways, can’t wait to reread these and annotate them with the knowledge of the series as a whole. Certainly a series that is far more than the sum of its parts and was well worth continuing despite not loving Autumn.
I’ll certainly be picking up Companion Piece soon as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Dementia, Deportation, Mental illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic