Winter by Ali Smith (Seasonal #2)

Winter by Ali Smith (Seasonal #.2)

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I've been wanting to read Ali Smith's seasonal quartet in the right order since I read Autumn last Autumn and it went straight to my list of best books of the year. Alas, I am a faffer so my reading of the quartet has just begun. I really like the idea of doing these as a personal 'slow read' through the year. Reading each one in the season they are set. Starting with Winter in December, I plan on continuing with Spring in March, Summer in June, Autumn in September and rounding it off by reading Companion Piece.

There is something quite magical about being surrounded by what you are reading about. It makes the experience immersive and almost takes on a call and response feeling with the author. A character sees their breath in the air and it calls on you to look for the same. They examine the frost and see each tiny glittering particle and so do you! Although I cannot compare it with the experience of reading the quartet out of season, I imagine the doing it this way is much enhanced with all the imagery magnified as it is reflected around you by reading in season. Winter is in essence a character study of what unites and divides us across generations, race, class, gender and the physical world. Ali Smith is a genius of character writing. She humanises everyone across the spectrum of belief and really gets into the grit of why people believe what they believe. She puts into words a sense of unease and building tension which I certainly have felt over the past decade or so and I'm sure many others will feel familiar with too.

The novel takes place over the festive period (Christmas and the gloriously liminal time between Christmas and Hogmanay) with Art returning home to visit his dysfunctional family. The key leaves on the family tree are as follows; Sophia (Art's mum), Iris (Art's aunt and Sophia's sister), and Art a tortured middle-aged man who I hate to say I held little sympathy for. Art's untimely break up with Charlotte means he is scrambling for a stand in to take home for Christmas. He sees a young woman named Lux at a bus stop and recruits her - which, makes this sound like the set up for a romance novel but I assure you it is not. Lux somewhat upends the delicate family balance of tension and a longstanding tradition of sweeping it under the rug. There is so much good stuff in here; passion, pain, resentment but most of all what remains is love, and the desire to be loved.

I read recently about the importance of small talk as a means of community and a way to heal a divided society. I have tried to look up the article again but unfortunately it has tumbled into the abyss of things you once saw on the internet and shall never find again! The essence of the article however was this, you will probably not be on the same page with everyone about everything but that doesn't mean you have nothing in common and cannot be part of the same society or community. It doesn't mean that the other person is bad or wrong. And above all it does not mean that you must be divided. We feel so opposed to people because we only hear their most polarising opinions online and therefore feel we share no common ground. In fact, you could probably sit down and talk to most people about how nice or not nice the weather is, how to make a nice cuppa, how pretty flowers are, how annoying the new bus schedule is or how weirdly addictive day time quiz shows are. After such a conversation you would leave feeling a connection rather than opposition and that is what I kept thinking of as I read Winter. There is a particular scene which I found compelling as two warring sisters were united by a shared memory. Soap flakes. Only soap flakes and the thought of how soft they felt was enough to create a moment of calm. It doesn't mean they don't still have opposing views. It just means there is something there. Something to bring us together and maybe something to bring us to the table and talk again.

Overall I really loved Winter, Ali Smith's writing always leads you down a slightly misty path before bringing you out into the open to face an often scorchingly succinct point about the world we live in. I loved this, her tender portrayal of the people behind big ideas that often define us. Where can we meet in the middle? How can we understand?

I am so looking forward to reading Spring when the lambs are skipping around and the crocus buds start peeking through the grass. As they always will. Even when things are scary.

Love,

Grace xx