Summer

Summer by Ali Smith

As I have been preparing to write this review, I have been looking back on what I had written in my reviews for the previous three instalments of Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet and it has been interesting to see how my thoughts have developed on the series as new instalments are published. For example, in my review of Winter, under the assumption that Spring and Summer would follow chronologically through the year 2017, I made the (incorrect) predictions that Spring would have the backdrop of the 2017 terror attacks and Summer would have the backdrop of the Grenfell Tower disaster. Little did I know what was to come in the world and that Summer, instead, would have the backdrop of a global pandemic. This quartet of novels has been such a fascinating exploration of the time that we are living through and has chronicled the key turning points of the past four years almost in real time. Summer manages not only to capture the sudden shift in lifestyle and priorities that has happened over the course of the past year but also to wrap up the stories of the characters from the previous three instalments.

Summer primarily follows the stories of two sets of siblings: in early 2020, Sacha and Robert have nothing in common, but a chance meeting with strangers Art and Charlotte could be a catalyst for change in a year of uncertainty; told alongside this, during the Second World War, Daniel and Hannah struggle with not knowing what has happened to each other, Daniel from his imprisonment as a German living in the UK and Hannah from her position as part of the French Resistance. As the narrative moves towards its conclusion, characters from most across Smith’s quartet find that their lives are changing (whether they are ready or not) and some find they need to adjust their way of thinking in order to move forward.

It is almost impossible to review Summer on its own, without taking into account the way it concludes the three narratives that came before. Since Winter is the instalment I remembered the least about, it took me a little while to recognise Art and Charlotte as characters from that novel, however once I realised the links to Spring, I started to notice more and more references and cameos. It has been so long since I read Autumn that I did have to go back to double check Daniel and Elizabeth’s names to confirm they were the same characters, but once I had I loved getting this unexpected insight into a particular, impactful summer from Daniel’s past. The unexpected connections that are drawn between the characters, both realised and implied, bring a much needed sense of hope and grounding to a series that has recreated the unsettled loneliness and division of our time. It is a more hopeful end to the quartet than I thought was possible, concluding with both big and small moments of kindness and empathy in the quietness of daily life.    

The two main narratives of Summer, the parallel storylines of the two pairs of siblings, are engaging, with all of Smith’s typical introspection and insight. I found myself much more drawn to the sections from Daniel and Hannah’s perspectives, particularly with the research that Smith has clearly done to recreate the experience and imprisonment of Germans living in the UK during the Second World War. However, an aspect of Sacha and Robert’s story that I really appreciated was something which has been consistent throughout the Seasonal Quartet: that although these two characters have such opposing views on the world around them, the reality is that, regardless of being right or wrong, both characters are flawed and act out their worldviews in flawed ways. The omniscient narrator, moving through the perspectives of all these characters, rarely passes judgment on them even when the reader knows that the character is in the wrong. The point of the narrative is not about which character is right and which character is wrong, it is about the reasons why they have the worldviews that they do and how those worldviews are gradually changed by the encounters that they have.

Overall, this is a series of novels which I imagine will become an important insight in future years into this period of time that we have just lived through. I have come away from each instalment feeling a little unsettled, sitting with a lot of thoughts as I process what I have just read and Summer was no exception: it has taken me a few days to gather my thoughts to write this review. Although Spring remains my favourite of the quartet, Summer has definitely taken the place of second-favourite, and it is certainly a most fitting conclusion to the series. As always, I don’t think that Smith’s writing is for everyone, but for those who enjoy literary fiction this is definitely a series that I would recommend.