Summer, by Ali Smith

 I can't really write about Summer without writing about the rest of the quartet, though actually, I might have liked it more if I hadn't read the others. I've complained enough on this blog (though maybe not recently) about how much I despise the "multiple unrelated stories that get woven together" form (or better to say, how picky I am about it; I actually love it when it's done well, but usually I find it trite). So you'll understand why I say that I might have enjoyed this book more if I didn't know that the characters had appeared in previous books. The fact that I didn't completely remember their stories from earlier didn't actually help (or maybe it did!). 

The thing is: I loved Autumn. I read it 2 years ago and thought it was just gorgeous, and a wonderful meditation on different forms of love, and so clever in the way it subtly referenced extremely recent events. I was already a huge Ali Smith fan, and I was so excited to read the rest of the quartet, but decided I'd wait until all of them were out, and read each in its season. I read Winter in March, and liked it not quite as much as Autumn, but appreciated its slightly surreal quality, and its loving meditation on Shakespeare, and the way it really did capture a feeling of winter, just as the previous book had gotten something right about autumn. But then I kind of hated Spring. I hated the way it used magical realism to talk about some of the more appalling aspects of the political present, and I even started to find Smith's style somewhat grating. 

I disliked it so much that I put off reading Summer for as long as possible, so that I wouldn't still be annoyed when I read it. And so I didn't actually start it until summer was over, in late October, and then things got veryvery busy, so I only just finished it. And it was fine. I was surprised by how heart-rending it was to read about characters experiencing lockdown and the beginnings of the pandemic (too soon?). It did, at moments, evoke a very specific kind of summer feeling (but I am still in the thrall of Garden by the Sea which is just the perfect summer book). I was mostly charmed by Smith's style, though I definitely think it will be a good long while before I pick up another book of hers. But mostly, I found the novel largely forgettable.