Man, what a brilliant end to the seasons books. I've loved most of them and just really love Ali Smith's style. I think it's hard to describe and I can easily see why some people would be put off by it. Like there's a tendency to political commentary that I agree with but is pretty blunt and quite shallow. Her characters are regularly saying clever, meaningful things. And yet in the overall story both are turned into virtues - the blunt politics is also subtly and brilliantly threaded throughout everything else. Somehow the characters who sometimes talk unrealistically are instantly recognisable as very real people with depth of thought that you can remember from your own experience without being caricatures. The language is usually easy to read and direct and still feels like it's deep and complex and touching on so many feelings. The overall impression is of a simple, easy to understand direct surface yet as soon as you think even a little bit you suddenly start to see all the ways everything is interweaved within her writing and appreciate the beauty that she's constantly communicating. And this particular book wraps up the stories of the last 3 novels in a beautiful way, in a dialogue with them. Idk dude I'm bad at writing about stuff I like. It's just good. ( )

This series has been a balm for my soul, and no doubt for the souls of many others devastated by the 21st century's rapid embrace of hatred, division, cronyism, lies, mistruths, financial inequality, social inequality, political inequality, irrational and poorly thought-out arguments, and anything else that sees kindness and reason as unnecessary barriers on the path ahead.

Summer is a fitting conclusion. While I can only award the individual novel 4 stars, the series as a whole certainly deserves 5.

The books are certainly filled with despair and fear, with that vertiginous feeling constantly rattling in the brains of those of us who know our history, utterly bewildered that all this can happen over and over again, and yet not surprised at all. Smith captures characters who cannot quite connect, who cannot quite see past their own worldviews to peer inside the minds of others. Yet, she also offers hope.

That hope has become harder to find, not just during the apocalyptic year of 2020, but during the entirety of my lifetime, the apex of the neoliberal movement. Smith's series is not an instruction manual, not a solution. Rather it is like the songs we sing in the darkness, to remind ourselves that we are not alone. It is a battle cry, or a gospel hymn. It reminds us that we are more than our worst selves. Like the late Shakespeare plays which are referenced frequently throughout the four volumes, Smith suggests that there is still magic in the web, that humans still have the capacity to overcome the dark times we have created, and metamorphose them into something rich and strange. ( )

het boek leest lekker als elk boek van Smith. Daardoor lees ik snel en heb geen behoefte om alle verwijzingen precies uit te pluizen. De verhalen zijn allemaal verbonden. Alle verhalen lijken iets wezenlijks aan te tippen. Over mensen, ideëen of tijdgeest. Voor mij blijft de grote rode draad vaag: De relatie van het individu tot zijn direkte naasten, familie of geliefden. Ze kunnen je mateloos irriteren, maar je kunt niet zonder ze. ( )

Escrita durant la pandèmia. Criítica de la societat anglesa:en particular i de tota l'occidental per extensio :pandèmia, Boris Johnson, mascaretes, immigrats, crisi clímatica, ..... ( )

I think maybe I liked this one the best of the four. A bit more “accessible” perhaps. Lots of cool, somewhat intersecting stories, past and present, and I kind of wanted more from each. A lot of great characters and some interesting WW2-era history about detention camps in the UK. Sad note, this is the first novel I’ve read that has mentioned stuff about the COVID pandemic - it’s definitely part of the plot. Publication date was August 2020 so she must’ve still been writing in March or even April. I think you could really like “Summer” without having read the others, and I’m not sure at all there’d be any harm in reading them out of order.

Listened to the audiobook. ( )