Spring: A Seasonal Quartet Novel

Peter Fowler: This is real virtuoso stuff. Two entwined and equally engrossing narrative lines embedded in writing, which manages to be both gossamer light and deeply thought. A wonderful if highly disturbing reflection on man's inhumanity to man . Fabulous....on to Summer.

United Kingdom on Dec 14, 2023

MaryAnn DeVlieg: Come al solito per Slmith, porta il lettore in un viaggio incredibile in un paesaggio curioso pieno in definita i speranza

Italy on Sep 16, 2023

NYBackus: Ali Smith is a brilliant writer. The Seasonal Quartet is magical, part fairytale, part devastating social commentary and beautifully written.

United States on Dec 10, 2022

Chantal: Had to read for a course. I have not read the others in the quartet but this one was definitely hard to read. The characters were unlikeable and it’s clear that Smith is trying too hard to prove something but comes off as being pretentious instead. Would not recommend.

Canada on Apr 22, 2022

Cathryn Conroy: It may be titled "Spring," but this is not a book about the blossoming of new love or reveling in Earth's colorful pastel rebirth. It is bleak and dark with just a smidgen of hope. It's also experimental in form—so much so that when I was about 35 pages into the book, I stopped reading and started over at page one, which made all the difference to understanding what was happening.

Written by Scottish author Ali Smith, this is the third in what the author describes as a seasonal quartet. Unlike virtually all book series, this one does not need to be read in order. Each book is totally independent of the others. If they weren't grouped together as a quartet, you wouldn't even know they were a series.

But one thing the books in this seasonal quartet do have in common is they are all stories interwoven with political discourse. (Some might even call it political diatribe.) "Spring" is focused on immigration issues in Britain, specifically how immigrants are treated once they arrive. Many are housed in Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) where they are held indefinitely—like prisoners—even though they are only supposed to be detained for 72 hours.

This is a...

United States on Mar 27, 2022

Pallavi (pals_bookshelf)Pallavi (pals_bookshelf): "Winter has Epiphany. Spring's gifts are different.
Month of dead deities coming back to life.
In the french revolutionary calendar, along with the last days of March, it becomes Germinal, the month of return to the source, to the seed, to the germ of things, which is maybe why Zola gave the novel he wrote about hopeless hope this revolutionary title.
April the anarchic, the final month, of spring the great connective.
Pass any flowering bush or tree and you can't not hear it, the buzz of the engine, the new life already at work in it, time's factory."
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Another great book by Ali Smith.
Another book that's very hard to review!
Spring is the third book in the seasonal quartet. The writing often reminds me of an old slide projector, with each photographic slide having a unique memory, but still interconnected with each other. Ali Smith directs us towards the future by talking about Now, and by remembering past. We often get a flavour of "history repeats itself," leading to the important question, what are we going to do about it?
The characters never over power the story. They act as catalysts nudging us towards the bigger picture. After reading her books,...

India on Jul 16, 2021

Marcos Martin: Papel grueso y la fuente es grande

Spain on Apr 13, 2021

Jason Adams: “Spring” has a lot going on. The third entry in Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet about life in Britain during Brexit, “Spring” takes the interesting approach of telling a story through the eyes of “extras.” The broken characters we think the novel is about are in fact witnesses to a deeper and more compelling story that filters through their fractured viewpoints. What we see, instead is the impact of those events on them. In a brief coda, we see how Spring has treated these bit players writ large, and it is in Smith’s depiction of rebirth that the deeper political message comes forward.
This is a chaotic time that has impacted people regardless of their political persuasion. What Smith has offered is an insight to rebirth when people remember the fundamental goodness that is hidden by rhetoric and lies. For those willing to engage with the repressed and reviled, to find a way to help and redeem their slighted morals, there is a path to a new Spring.

United States on Sep 04, 2020

jkl: I have yet to get Summer because I can't stand that this series is coming to an ending, I have so loved Autumn, Winter, Spring.....Spring is a very interesting take on the refugee crisis/immigration in the usual Ali Smith way. Lovely characters, lovely insight into this modern world. I really can't say enough about what a delight these books have been to read. Ali Smith is a very gifted author, I've read a couple of her other works and am just so grateful I found her through these seasons books.

United States on Aug 27, 2020

Lisa Jason: Reading works by Ali Smith becomes an addiction. Her ability to play with words and themes is unparalleled. This book, Spring, the third in her Seasonal Quartet, is exceptional.

United States on Jul 24, 2020