Book Review: Summer, by Ali Smith (2020)

 


Summer has come and gone, and I’ve completed the seasonal set. Actually, it’s now early March, winter is blowing out, and I was referring to the literary rather than literal summer. I’m not too sure of the significance of each title to the story the respective books contain, there is a loose grounding of each narrative to the season they are tagged to, and the descriptional stuff plays on the nominated time of year for each novel, which is nice, but overall the book titles seem a bit arbitrary. That’s unless I’m missing something, which I most probably am. There must be something in having gone full cycle, so to speak; an end and beginning again, continuation.

I’m aware that there’s a lot in these works by Ali Smith that I probably didn’t get, or haven’t got yet. Each book’s links to plays by Shakespeare, for example, is something I’ve read about, but am likely never to fully appreciate. As I’ve said before, I already look forward to rereading these books, discovering things I missed in the stories, going deeper into their undoubtedly clever and deliberate subtleties.

This book, I think, is the longest of the four, and feels a bit like a summary of themes covered in the other ‘seasons’. A number of former characters reappear, which is always nice, providing some familiarity and a stage already set. For example, we learn more about the earlier life of Daniel Gluck, the very old man from Autumn – his experience of the war (interned on the Isle of Man due to his German heritage), and of his immediate family. Certain connections between former characters either develop, or become apparent. Coronavirus too has arrived in this novel, and with it the contemplation of lockdown, separation and isolation, being restricted and frozen into the moment we find ourselves in.

There are also new faces, in the form of teenage Sacha Greenlaw and her younger brother Robert, who she both despises and protects, and their separated parents, from whom we mostly get to know Grace, their mother. The different experiences, ideologies, outlooks and attitudes of these family members perhaps frame this story more than anything else. No judgements are really made, rather matters of fact and points to reasons why we come to view the world the way we do. Different generations with differing back stories and expectations of the future. In that sense, this one feels a bit more accommodating, forgiving even, than the other novels, a bit like our own plights are rather futile in the grand scheme of things. I’m not sure if that is what was intended or not. Perhaps to say that there’s generally goodness in everyone, that there are good reasons behind our ingrained values and beliefs. That we should not be so readily dismissive and confrontational. Rather attempt to channel our aspirations vaguely in a common direction, with as much tolerance as possible, such that we avoid being dismissive and destructive, and learn to live with each other. That might be it. Sounds good anyway. Maybe I’ll be able to elaborate more after the reread.

 

Favourite Character: I think I like Mr Gluck more now than I did back in Autumn. From the new cast, I guess I had the most time for Sacha.

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