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A review by thebobsphere
Companion Piece: The follow-up to the Seasonal Quartet by Ali Smith
5.0
Ali Smith’s Companion Piece is not exactly a follow up to her Seasonal Quartet, There aren’t the same characters or a famous woman artist. Rather it follows the timeline which was featured in the quartet. For example, the last volume, Summer left off at the beginning of the pandemic, while Companion Piece now features Britain midway through COVID-19.
Companion Piece has a lot of trademarks that are now common in Ali Smith’s novels: There is a precocious child, shifting timelines, puns and sly commentaries on politics and offbeat discussions of the arts, Case in point: The main protagonist is an artist, Sandy, who isolates letters in books in order to get at their themes – coincidentally the book she’s working on is The Scarlet Letter. Her father is in hospital (not COVID) and she’s at his house looking after his dog.
In the meantime she receives a call from an old art school acquaintance, Martina, who remembers how Sandy had a knack for interpreting things and asks her to decipher a mysterious voice who told her curlew or curfew. As things have it, Martina’s family move into Sandy’s house while she is dog sitting.
As this is Ali Smith, this sort of plot is a springboard for many things: Martina’s children represent the younger generation: big on cancel culture, acting righteous without a solid backing in anything and speaking in acronyms.
Martina experiences a nasty run in with security over a lock she is transporting to a museum: British politics.
There’s a flashback that involves Sandy and Martina interpreting an e e cummings poem about death (there’s much more to it than that) , I saw this as a foreshadowing of how events play out in the novel as death does feature both in a metaphorical and realist sense.
One other narrative involves a retelling of The Scarlet letter – except with Romani. Another allusion to politics, maybe treatment of refugees?
There’s also hints to mythology , medieval language, puns and history. As ever, Ali Smith treats in her usual playful manner.
Although I am not a fan of her short stories, I adore Ali Smith’s novels and this is no exception. Intelligent, funny AND fun, Companion Piece is definitely one for Ali Smith fans and AS newbies as well. I won’t say it is a masterpiece but it is very good.
Companion Piece has a lot of trademarks that are now common in Ali Smith’s novels: There is a precocious child, shifting timelines, puns and sly commentaries on politics and offbeat discussions of the arts, Case in point: The main protagonist is an artist, Sandy, who isolates letters in books in order to get at their themes – coincidentally the book she’s working on is The Scarlet Letter. Her father is in hospital (not COVID) and she’s at his house looking after his dog.
In the meantime she receives a call from an old art school acquaintance, Martina, who remembers how Sandy had a knack for interpreting things and asks her to decipher a mysterious voice who told her curlew or curfew. As things have it, Martina’s family move into Sandy’s house while she is dog sitting.
As this is Ali Smith, this sort of plot is a springboard for many things: Martina’s children represent the younger generation: big on cancel culture, acting righteous without a solid backing in anything and speaking in acronyms.
Martina experiences a nasty run in with security over a lock she is transporting to a museum: British politics.
There’s a flashback that involves Sandy and Martina interpreting an e e cummings poem about death (there’s much more to it than that) , I saw this as a foreshadowing of how events play out in the novel as death does feature both in a metaphorical and realist sense.
One other narrative involves a retelling of The Scarlet letter – except with Romani. Another allusion to politics, maybe treatment of refugees?
There’s also hints to mythology , medieval language, puns and history. As ever, Ali Smith treats in her usual playful manner.
Although I am not a fan of her short stories, I adore Ali Smith’s novels and this is no exception. Intelligent, funny AND fun, Companion Piece is definitely one for Ali Smith fans and AS newbies as well. I won’t say it is a masterpiece but it is very good.