“What you reading?” Daniel Gluck
asks whenever he sees Elisabeth Demand in Ali Smith’s latest novel, Autumn. They have a strange friendship
that easily transcends the sixty-nine year age gap between them.
This relationship, Brexit and
the colourful life of British pop artist Pauline Boty form the core of this
moving novel, the first of the four Ali Smith plans to write with the seasons
as titles.
Autumn,
shortlisted for the Man Booker Award this year, moves between 2016, when Daniel
is 101, lying comatose in an elder care hospital, and different points in the
past when he becomes a friend, philosopher and mentor to his young neighbour.
He unwittingly nudges Elisabeth
into doing her dissertation on Boty, who fought male prejudice against female
painters to do her bold and original work, but slowly fell out of favour. When he is lying in hospital, Elisabeth
visits him regularly, pretending to be his granddaughter, and reads to him.
In the world outside, Britain has voted to leave the European Union,
and the people are shocked. The country
as Daniel, Elisabeth and her somewhat batty mother Wendy know it, turns into a
suspicious, hate-filled, barbed-wired place. Someone has spray-painted the
words “GO HOME” on the house of a family, presumably immigrants. Later, when passing the same house, Elisabeth
sees the words “WE ARE ALREADY HOME THANK YOU” painted right below, with a tree
and bright red flowers. A gracious response to boorishness.
The writing is non-linear-- dreams,
memories, impressions, interspersed with
reality.
Then there are the playful bits
that portray the friendship between Daniel and Elisabeth.
“Very pleased to meet you,” Daniel says when
he meets the eight-year-old for the first the first time, “Finally.”
“How do you mean, finally?”
Elisabeth asks. “We only moved here six weeks ago.”
“The lifelong friends,” Daniel
says. “We sometimes wait a lifetime for them.”
The next book in the series
will be Winter, and Ali Smith admirers
can only wait with eager anticipation.
Autumn
By Ali Smith
Publisher: Pantheon
Pages: 272
No comments:
Post a Comment