May 9

May 9 Spring (Seasonal Quartet, #3)

Author: Ali Smith
Publisher: Pantheon
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

What unites Katherine Mansfield, Charlie Chaplin, Shakespeare, Rilke, Beethoven, Brexit, the present, the past, the north, the south, the east, the west, a man mourning lost times, a woman trapped in modern times?

Spring. The great connective.

With an eye to the migrancy of story over time, and riffing on Pericles, one of Shakespeare's most resistant and rollicking works, Ali Smith tells the impossible tale of an impossible time. In a time of walls and lockdown Smith opens the door.

The time we're living in is changing nature. Will it change the nature of story?

Hope springs eternal.

TL;DR Review

Spring is my favorite of Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet so far. It’s a deeply felt novel with smart, resonant social commentary.

For you if: You love characters that feel real enough to break your heart.

Full Review

I’m currently reading Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet in order, season by season (with @caseys_chapters!). I’ve liked them all, but I think Spring is my favorite so far.

This one focuses on two main characters: Richard, an older man who was once a moderately successful film director, mourning the loss of his closest friend; and Brit, a corrections officer for the quartet’s fictional security company (which is also involved with border security). Richard has decided there’s nothing left for him, and Brit finds herself traveling with a remarkable young schoolgirl named Florence.

I think this one felt a little less abstract in terms of how it related to the season it’s named for, which helped. It sang with positioning of spring against the idea of borders and migration and the kind of impossible, barely-there hope that always exists despite the brokenness of the world. It might also be that the social commentary felt a little fresher (since the book is newer); I was particularly struck by Brit and the momentum that keeps her from opening her eyes, much less taking action.

But even considered on its own, the power of Ali Smith’s prose is (as always) somehow unnameable but also unmistakeable, and the characters broke my heart. This was deeply felt and effective, and I can’t wait to read Summer.