Winter

Ali Smith (1962) must be one of the most ‘adorable’ writers nowadays. What I remember best about [b:Autumn|28446947|Autumn (Seasonal Quartet, #1)|Ali Smith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456560519l/28446947.SY75.jpg|48572278], the first part of her series Seasonal Quartet, are the endearing dialogues between 13-year old Elisabeth and 85-year old Daniel. Although the stories are unrelated, I recognised that sweet and witty tone again in Winter, the second part.

The plot revolves around Sophia, an older woman with a floating child’s head (that’s right) in her house, her estranged sister Iris and her son Art(hur), who ‘hires’ a woman to play the role of his ex-partner Charlotte during Christmas. As in the previous part, the story jumps back and forth in time. Smith romps with the role of memory and remembrance. I especially enjoyed the feud between the two sisters, one turned inward, the other outward. (They reminded me of Jonathan Franzen’s [b:Crossroads|55881796|Crossroads|Jonathan Franzen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1617877772l/55881796.SY75.jpg|87094188].)

Smith writes with a smooth style; her characters are interesting opposites. I liked the entanglement of everyday life, philosophic ideas, contemporary references and absurdist elements. Admittedly, some pages may have been wasted on me. At times the story seemed to drift away and I couldn’t always find the concentration to continue. Perhaps I should read it again in a few years, then in conjunction with the other parts.

"That’s what winter is: an exercise in remembering how to still yourself and then how to come pliantly back to life again.”

I liked this book even better the second time. It's an apt read for cold weather and imminent holidays. Despite the nods to modernity (ubiquitous Googling, blogs, smart phones, and laptops), the backdrop of contemporary global politics, and Smith's always quirky writing, this novel is at its core almost old-fashioned.

Art has been dumped by his activist girlfriend and is feeling lost. He pays a young woman he spots at a bus stop to come home with him at Christmas and pretend to be his fiancé. But Christmas at home with his mother and aunt who haven't spoken to each other for years promises to be a holiday nightmare. Except that his proxy fiancé, the appropriately named Lux, in fact does provide some needed illumination to guide the family toward more forgiving versions of themselves.

Winter is informed by Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and Smith invokes the classic several times throughout her novel. The primary characters all have their ghosts of Christmas past -- memories that float in and out of their consciousnesses and nightmares; along with a few future ghosts. Art's mom, Sophia, is Scrooge-like, Art's aunt Iris has Bob Cratchett's expansiveness, and of course, Lux is Smith's version of Tiny Tim. But the book is an utterly contemporary look at the obstacles family members face when they meet up.

In a gorgeous passage, Lux summarizes Shakespeare's play Cymbeline in an oblique reference to the challenges facing Art and his family:

“...it’s like the people in the play are living in the same world but separately from each other, like their worlds have somehow become disjointed or broken off each other’s worlds. But if they could just step out of themselves, or just hear and see what’s happening right next to their ears and eyes, they’d see it’s the same play they’re all in, the same world, that they’re all part of the same story. So.”

A floating child's head, a load of bird watchers showing up in a tour bus on Christmas Day and helping themselves to leftovers, wacky nightmares, and a dysfunctional (well, except for Lux) but utterly endearing and human bunch of characters make this an hilarious and stimulating, but also poignant, read.

Ali Smith is just the best. She packs her books with so much stuff, all coming rapid fire, but it it's good stuff and it mostly works somehow. I can't think of another living author as innovative or smart, and whose brain seems to operate at such lightning speed, integrating the events in her characters' lives, politics, literary, musical and artistic references and a whole lot more in a seemingly relaxed, contemporary way. She says she tries to write in real time and incorporates things going on around her as she writes. Most of the time she succeeds.

A perfect winter read.