![]() ![]() There’s an awkwardness, and a fumbling, through so many of the personal interactions in this novel, and a humour which underpins everything. This unsettling moment is shortly, after another potential joke, followed by “I’m not joking, the man says. Maybe you’re not allowed to laugh out loud behind the counter of the main post office.” It’s like laughter, but also like a parody of laughter, and simultaneously a bit like he’s having an asthma attack. ![]() It seems he was joking his shoulders go up and down but no sound comes out of him. The principal character, Elisabeth sums it up concisely as an eight year old in 1993: “It’s about history, and being neighbours.”Įlisabeth’s ongoing battle with bureaucracy at the post office in the small town her mother lives in expresses such alienation, such a feeling of not-able-to-connect-ness, that the people interacting with are described like art, like an abstract painting of a person: The atmosphere of unreality is masterfully tied together with dream-sequence, ekphrasis, and lies. Published incredibly quickly following the chaos of the EU Referendum in June 2016, it fully captures the feelings of isolation, division, and distrust that seems to have characterised the 12 months since. Rich with reference and metaphor, Ali Smith’s Autumn is a triumph. ![]()
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