Winter? Bleak. Frosty wind, earth as iron, water as stone, so the old song goes. The shortest days, the longest nights. The trees are bare and shivering. The summer's leaves? Dead litter.
The world shrinks; the sap sinks.
But winter makes things visible. And if there's ice, there'll be fire.
In Ali Smith's Winter, lifeforce matches up to the toughest of the seasons. In this second novel in her acclaimed Seasonal cycle, the follow-up to her sensational Autumn, Smith's shape-shifting quartet of novels casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with a story rooted in history, memory and warmth, its taproot deep in the evergreens: art, love, laughter.
It's the season that teaches us survival.
Here comes Winter.
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[God was dead: to begin with] ***(Hamish Hamilton, hardback, 2 November 2017, borrowed from my library)
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I loved the first book in Smith's season series, Autumn so I was really looking forward to Winter. I was not disappointed.
Although the second book in a series, Winter is not related to Autumn so both books can be read independently. The only common link is that both books are set in a world after the UK voted to leave the EU.
Winter is a treat. I really liked all the characters. I loved Sophie, elderly, wealthy, struggling to hold onto her identity and sense of self in a world that's moving on and gradually leaving her behind. I liked Art. He's lost and sort of fragile and annoying. There's something endearing about him. Lux is a mystery. Charlotte is sort of horrible but not really.
Like Autumn, this book has no real discerning plot, no action or sequence of events that lead to a conclusion. I usually don't like these kinds of books but I just found Winter so engaging and enjoyable.
Winter is great is you want to read something different. I look forward to reading the other books in the season quartet.
