Our book of the month is Spring a name that conjurers up the great doors, something we have all been missing recently. We give you our Big Review below.
***Our Big Reviews are written from the point of view that you have read the book. If this is not yet you, bookmark the page and come back once you have***
Spring – the blurb
What unites Katherine Mansfield, Charlie Chaplin, Shakespeare, Rilke, Beethoven, Brexit, the present, the past, the north, the south, the east, the west, a man mourning lost times, a woman trapped in modern times?
Spring. The great connective.
With an eye to the migrancy of story over time, and riffing on Pericles, one of Shakespeare’s most resistant and rollicking works, Ali Smith tells the impossible tale of an impossible time. In a time of walls and lockdown Smith opens the door.
The time we’re living in is changing nature. Will it change the nature of story?
Hope springs eternal.
Seasonal Quartet
Those that have read our Lowdown will be aware the Spring is book 3 in a quartet by Smith all about the seasons. Autumn and Winter are already in paperback, Summer is due later this year. Each book whilst standalone connect at various points and each book obviously pushes the season they are representative of.
Spring is definitely mentioned in this book, yet it’s not as all pervading as I thought it would be. The (beautiful) cover hints at English countryside, country lanes and greenness. To then read about immigrants, April in Switzerland and an enigmatic orphan girl was confusing, jarring.
Sex in a swaying cable car
There is a phenomenal amount of real life literature, artists, writers and poets referenced in Spring. Some of whom I was familiar with, some not. The book centres around Richard an aging film director whose best friend (love of his life?) has just died. He is tasked with directing a terrible script of a brilliant novel and this coupled with his grief prompts him to abandon a meeting with the pompous script writer and randomly get on a train heading north.
April
We flit about between Richard’s present journey and the relationship he had with his deceased friend, Paddy, as they discuss the book and its (real life) characters Rilke and Katherine Mansfield.
More than anything I wanted to write the book April. To write such subtle apparently unconnected stories that constantly intertwine. That really in a nutshell is Spring. The writing is beautiful, it feels highbrow. It’s almost too literary for me but not quite. The sections involving security guard Brit bring it back down to earth. Her anecdotes about life in a center (prison) for immigrants are truly eye opening.
Vomit on a page
The introductory pieces are like vomit, spewed on to the page, yet hark at things all too familiar. In a way I found it reminiscent of Nothing Important Happened Today. Yet where Will Carver left you with a bitter after taste, Smith left you nodding your head, agreeing at the stupidity of it all.
I really liked Spring. At the start I wasn’t sure where it was going to go. A sense that was only heightened by the rambling introductory pieces. Yet I loved how it unfolded. It isn’t nature writing. It’s current, political, yet literary and beautiful. I now want to read Winter and Autumn, and Summer when it is published. It’s also a great book club book, and the hard back copy is pretty stunning (although it is out in paperback if that’s your thing).
Get Involved
If you would like to get involved with our book of the month try answering our book club questions published every month. Just search in our footnotes section for the ‘Get Involved’ articles. We review a new book every month so keep your eyes peeled for the Lowdown on June’s book of the month soon.