Ali Smith - Winter

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Disappointing

Oh dear.  I really liked Autumn and was looking forward to this a lot, but I'm afraid I didn't get on with it nearly so well.

After her post-Brexit state-of-the-nation assessment in Autumn, Winter sees Ali Smith considering issues like the depersonalisation through technology and disengagement from global issues which she sees (probably accurately) in Britain.  There are structural similarities to Autumn, with an older person whose mind may not be wholly reliable forming a relationship of sorts with a younger person with the consequent engagement of ideas and differences of behaviour.  There are also quite a few dream sequences (never a favourite of mine) and Smith's trademark quirky structures. 

Sadly, it didn't work for me this time.  The weirdnesses seemed an unnecessary distraction and the structural tricks – for example, giving the whole of one side of a conversation followed by the other side without interspersing them as they would have taken place – often seemed mannered and rather clever-for-the-sake-of-it.  Smith writes excellent prose, of course, creating convincing atmosphere and vivid characters so it's not hard to read.  This time, though, I just felt that in spite of some quite sharp pieces of observation there wasn't all that much original substance behind the style.  I agree with much of what she's saying, but for me it wasn't really worth spending so much time and stylistic effort in saying it again.

Plainly, others disagree and have enjoyed Winter very much, but I found it a let-down.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)