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Summer by Ali Smith - 4* - My Review

This book completes Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet which is focused on contemporary issues in the UK and the US, such as Brexit, resurgence of nationalism, borders, anti-immigrant sentiments, Black Lives Matter protests, environmentalism, and COVID-19. The narrative ties together the three previous books by bringing back some of the same characters and providing puzzle pieces that help understand the bigger picture.

In my view, the four books comprise a single work. This last installment answers many (but not all) of the questions that readers may have had after reading the first three. Themes include the nature of space-time, memory, courage, connectedness, and the way history tends to repeat itself. I particularly enjoyed the many cultural and literary references. Einstein is mentioned, along with Dickens, Shakespeare, Chaplin, and many others.

The first part is set in the first summer of the pandemic, this book opens with the Greenlaw family. Sacha lives with her mother and brother, Robert. Dad lives next door with his younger girlfriend. The description of how this situation came to be is pretty humorous. The family is split in its political views. The second part circles back to characters from the first three novels.

It is a very clever book that defies a quick summary. It cites parallels between our current world and those that gave rise to Fascism during World War II. Smith’s message here, in my view, is one of encouraging kindness, compassion, and understanding to avoid the mistakes of the past. To fully appreciate it, I recommend reading the entire quartet in sequence, as this book does not stand alone as well as the other three. Ali Smith is an intelligent, creative, and articulate writer. I always enjoy her offerings.

“On the contrary, time and space are what lace us all up together... what makes us part of the larger picture. Universally speaking. The problem is, we tend to think we're separate. But it's a delusion.”