Book Review: Spring, by Ali Smith (2019)
It’s been a long time, dear reader! 2022 hasn’t been a big reading year, for various reasons, but here I am, as winter draws in, to tell you about a book I’m not certain I understand. The thing is, I don’t need to understand Ali Smith’s stories in order to enjoy reading them. Her style of writing (see previous reviews) is a pleasure to experience on its own. Therefore, it doesn’t really matter if the story doesn’t appear to be about very much. The words flow as if the writer is chatting over your shoulder. And of course, it isn’t the case that the story’s about nothing. Like standing over a body of water, you can probably choose how deep you want to go. (I’ve also read from another commentator that returning to these books a second or third time is highly enlightening and rewarding.) As with the other seasonally titled novels in the series, Spring is a study of the state of present-day British society and politics, this time examining the cruelty and criminality of th...