Book Review: Autumn by Ali Smith

Evermore, and with humility, I must confess that I did not like nor dislike Autumn by Ali Smith. This has made writing this review a bit difficult. Had it not been for this afternoon’s book group discussion, I would have been left wondering what I had just read. Mental gymnastics, Brexit from 2016, Christine Keeler scandals (1961-1963), pop-artist Pauline Bote of the 1960's and a lovely relationship between a young girl, Elisabeth and an old man, Daniel Gluck ~ as well as dream sequences of the strange and bizarre. Their relationship began as a companionship that evolved into quaint and meaningful discussions about the meaning meaning of time, art, music, story and life. Elisabeth's mother was not always in favour of the discussion topics. Elisabeth to obey - for three days - but returned to the fascinating discussions and the respect she received from Daniel Gluck. Ali Smith really did weave all of this very skillfully through only 260 pages. Taking this very literally many times, I did struggle to follow the thread of the story, but soon let go of trying to find my way. Our group's afternoon discussion also revealed a great loss of mine with some good laughs. Several in our little group found much laugh out loud humour in this story. Could this be the fault of this reader being too serious? I did get a chuckle from the scenes she writes, when Elisabeth as a young woman, gets her passport renewed, could be in any passport office. Especially about the stringent regulations about the needed photographs. Will I read this book again? I’m really not sure. It has, however, made me curious.

Autumn is first in a four book series: Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer. 

“We have to hope, Daniel was saying, that the people

 who love us and who know us a little bit will in the end 

have seen us truly. In the end, not much else matters.”

~ Ali Smith, Autumn

Title: Autumn

Author: Ali Smith

Copyright: 2016

Publisher: Penguin House

Type: Novel

Format: Soft cover and hard cover

ISBN: 978-0-14-319789-8

ISBN: 978-0-14-319788-1 (ebook)