Autumn

By Ali Smith

This book was one of the 2017 Booker nominees.  I previously read the book How to Be Both by this author and didn't think much of it.  I picked Autumn up because I read a review of her next book called Winter and it sounded interesting.  These books are two of a planned set of four novels based on the names of the seasons.

The book, which takes place in England, is set just after the Brexit vote.  I love Smith's language in the book, for example "All across the conry, people felt it was the wrong thing,.  All across the country, people felt it was the right thing.  All across the country, people felt they'd really won.  I think that sizes up the divides in Britain and in the U.S today, possibly in other parts of the world too.

The book opens with an old man waking up to finding himself lying along a shore.  He is naked.  As he looks around he sees more dead people nearby him.  As he looks further away he sees some young people dancing.  He looks at his body and thinks it looks better than he remembers it so he thinks he must be dead.  He runs into the woods so the girls won't see him naked and sews himself an outfit out of leaves.  Magically a needle and thread appeared and he has discovered he knows how to sew.  He realizes he must be dead, or dreaming.  The mans name is Gluck and he is not dead.

We are then introduced to the other main character in the book, Elisabeth.  Elisabeth is a part time lecturer at a London university with no job security, not enough money to be able to do anything, but her mother thinks she has made it.

When Elisabeth is about eight she and her mother move into a new home.  Elisabeth is assigned the  school task of going to interview a neighbour.  She wants to go interview the old man next door but her mother insists she make it up instead.  Elisabeth does as she is told but when her mother reads what Elisabeth has written she takes it to the neighbour to read.  After this Gluck and Elisabeth become close friends, by choice but also because Elisabeth's mother uses him as E's babysitter on frequent occasions.  E's mother tells her she is going out to do something... but E knows that her mother is actually going to do something else... E is troubled that her mother lies to her.  Gluck on the other had always listens to her, asks her questions and will only answer her questions truthfully.  They become very close.

E discovers that her passport has expired and goes to the post office to submit her application.  It has to be reviewed by postal staff to speed up the processin.  The description of the tedium of the wait to get your number called is exquisite as is her interaction with the totally demoralized postal worker.  At one point in her wait E goes to buy a book to kill the time, picks up Brave New World, then returns to deal with the government machinery.  She is told her head is too big per the standards for her photo and she must return with a new photo.  She does come back again later to be told her hair isn't right in the photo but she tells that worker she will take her chances and submit the application.
 
One day E discovers a book of the art pieces of an English Pop Artist named Pauline Boty.  E realizes that the art Gluck tried to get her to visualize is works by this woman.  When she takes the book to Gluck she learns that he knew this artist, loved her, but she did not requite his love.  The painter died young, she was discovered to have cancer while pregnant with her first child, refuses radiation because of this and dies a few days after the child is born as a result.  While Pauline was famous at the time she has vanished from popular conciousness.  E decides to abadon her current dissertation work and against the advice of her faculty adviser switches her dissertation to this woman.

As the jumps back and forward in time with interactions between E and her mother, they just don't connect at all and Gluck whom E admires, even loves, we find that Gluck is now a centenarian languishing in a bed in a care facility, expected to dies soon.  When E learns about Gluck's state from her mother she rushes home to stay with her mother so she can visit Gluck.  Her mother is chagrined that her daughter seems to have come back for Gluck and not her as E hardly ever visited her mother before.  E goes to the care facility. Gluck is asleep but she talks to him in her mind, or reads aloud to him. At the end of the book she is reading the tale of two cities.

One story line that I don't understand is that an area of common land near E's Mother's home suddenly gets fenced with electric fence.  Elisabeth goes to the see the fencing and is challenged by a security guard within the fence.  Her other later takes to throwing things at the fence to create sparks.

While E is living her life E's mother becomes engrossed with a tv show where ordinary people and experts compete to discover gems in antique shops.  Her mother is selected to be on the show, and becomes lovers with one of the celebrities she meets on the show (another woman).  The mother keeps saying that Gluck is gay, E knows she is wrong.

I read a review of this book in the Guardian.  The writer says this book is about time, how it is transitory. While I think that is part of it I think it is more about memory, being remembered and perhaps the difference between memory and reality.  It is also about perspective.

"I don't like it when summer goes and autumn comes"  she (E) said.  Daniel took her by the shoulder and turned herround.  He didnt say anything. But across the landscape down behind them it was still sunlit blue and green".

In the book the artist Boty says that she married her husband because he was the only man who truly knew her and accepted her brilliance as a woman.  In talking to E Gluck says "that the people who love us and know us a little bit will in the end have seen us truly. in the end not much else matters." But shortly after he goes on to say"its the only responsibility memory has...But if course, memory and responsibiliyy are strangers.  They are foreign to each other. Memory always goes its own way quite regardless."  The second seems to contradict the first but this book is all about contradictions.

I did not mention that the artist Boty does collages with contemporary figures/themes.  At one point she agrees to be photographed but insists on standing in front of her art so it won't be ignored but the art gets cropped out.  There is another story in the book about a political scandal which brings down an ambitious woman.  One of Boty's pieces includes reference to this scandal.  Not sure what this is about??


One day when E is visiting Gluck a care worker comes in and tells E that Gluck is a gentleman and that he has told her stories about his life in the war.  E is shocked that he has told a complete stranger about this part of his life but never told her about it.

To me this book about truth and honesty between people.... people think they know other people but do they really?  Can people ever truly be honest with other people, especially those they are closest too?  And, when we die, will anyone remember us and will they remember us truly or will their memories be warped by choice or human frailty.

I am going to read the next book in the series, then I am going to reread this one to try to figure out how the side stories fit in.  So much to think about!  I am glad I overcame my disappointment about the first book I read by her and picked up this one.