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Spring
- Seasonal Quartet, Book 3
- Narrated by: Juliette Burton
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
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Spring
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Summary
From the best-selling author of Autumn and Winter comes the next instalment in the remarkable, once-in-a-generation masterpiece, the Seasonal Quartet.
What unites Katherine Mansfield, Charlie Chaplin, Shakespeare, Rilke, Beethoven, Brexit, the present, the past, the north, the south, the east, the west, a man mourning lost times, a woman trapped in modern times? Spring. The great connective.
With an eye to the migrancy of story over time, and riffing on Pericles, one of Shakespeare's most resistant and rollicking works, Ali Smith tells the impossible tale of an impossible time. In a time of walls and lockdown Smith opens the door.
The time we're living in is changing nature. Will it change the nature of story? Hope springs eternal.
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What listeners say about Spring
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. A. J. Kelly
- 22-12-21
A twisting tale which meanders somewhere
A great story which interweaves stories of people and places in a way that comes together but then goes we know not where
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- RebeccaL
- 15-09-19
Beautiful, moving and timely
A wonderfully moving and timely novel by Ali Smith set in contemporary U.K. Tells of despair and hope in our modern world with the usual Ali Smith style and elegance. Another great gem, only second to Winter by her which is the pinnacle of this series so far. Very highly recommended!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- EEL
- 30-03-19
Hopeless hope in the third book of the tetralogy
Those of you considering reading the third book in a series of four probably don't need my recommendation, as you'll be aware already of Smith's wonderfully whimsical, deeply serious, humorously hamfisted, piquantly political, and compellingly readable work, with its wonderful layers and intertextualities (and intersonic and intervisual cues too--very multi-media). What you SHOULD know about this is that the audio has a different chapter order from that in the published book: the final chapter of the audio comes between chapter 33 and 34 in the printed book. I think the printed book order is better and probably represents the more final thoughts of the author and editor (unless the audio order is just an error?). Anyway, the physical book is such a beautiful object, that it's worth buying it anyway...
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Arlene Finnigan
- 24-04-19
Interesting.....
This is another interesting, curious, state-of-the-nation novel. Can't decide if the more polemical bits are thought-provoking witty reflections on modern society or a bit smart arse and pretentious. I think I would have appreciated it better in print - it was a bit harder to follow on audio, and personally I didn't like the narrator's attempts at the accents. The descriptive passages are beautiful.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alexandraki Katerina
- 08-10-19
excellent stuff as always
ah Ali Smith! Painfully depicting the sad political realitiy, but what a treat this has been!!
Moving, aesthetically brilliant and with a needed hint of hope.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Charlie Gracie
- 18-06-23
Beautiful writing.
Another stunning story by Ali Smith. Such depth. And breadth.
The reader (different from Autumn and Winter) was generally okay but her Scottish and Irish accents (key to the book) were very poor; they were hackneyed, a bit lazy. Mispronouncing George McKay Brown’s name early on was forgivable, but again a bit lazy. The accents grated on my Irish-Scottish ears.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 08-05-23
Excellent
Painfully shows the political reality of the power - and powerlessness - of people. Thought provoking and engaging.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- cfuk
- 07-08-21
Book is great but spoiled by last chapter being a repeat of previous
This s a great book and all was fine until chapter 41 - t is a repeat of a precious chapter which makes for a disappointment at the end. Please correct this
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Sararara
- 29-02-20
Hard work
This instalment was annoying in so many ways. It was less a multi-layered contemporary critique and more a disjointed and rather pretentious anthology.
It veered from an alpine sanatorium to facile film makers, then from a dehumanising detention centre to a Scottish road trip, via suicidal grief and an excruciatingly precocious child.
There were brief moments of insight and a brilliant interlude concerning the internet but it was all rather preachy and smug.
After struggling with this book for several months, it was a relief when it finally ended.
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2 people found this helpful