Summer by Ali Smith6/10/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() … He flickers and flashes like one of the arcade machines on the pier.”Īn unexpected meeting lures the family back into the past as they journey for an audience with Daniel Gluck, a 104-year-old languishing in a limbo where his memories of World War II meld with conflicts from the here and now. To Sacha, “it’s as if Robert has attached a dimmer switch to his own brilliance and like he is randomly turning it down as low and dark as it can go then thunking it up to dazzling. ![]() A middle-aged divorcée with a theatrical background, Grace Greenlaw grapples with parenting her two teenagers, Sacha, a liberal firebrand, and Robert, the astute if difficult younger brother. Mostly set in southern Britain in February 2020, “Summer” tracks a fearful nation in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as businesses grind to a halt and families shelter, glowering, in their houses. With “Summer,” the final installment, she looms her themes and arcs - Brexit, the refugee crisis, women artists, the surge of demagogues such as Boris Johnson and Donald Trump - into a shimmering tapestry of rage and redemption. Ali Smith has been called “Scotland’s Nobel-laureate-in waiting,” her seasonal quartet breathing vigor into the tired conceit that the personal is political. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |