I have this stupid habit of gathering reviews after I read a book –if it’s a book that I want to delve into. Even though I don’t have a deliberate methodology for this search process, it takes time to gather the initial resources. What I do is simply googling the search term “{authorName} {bookName} reviews” and visiting the first couple of pages. The publishers that perform well on Google are more or less fixed: The Guardian is almost always the first result –maybe their SEO also play some role in it next to their content. Due to the current political economy of the web, it’s not always easy to run into the substantial reviews. Nevertheless, the preliminary search results give an initial idea. On the road, you will close too many subscription popups, accept several dialogs that ask consent and filter several purely promotional summaries. In addition, you can only read up to three articles in some publisher websites.
Here, I wanted to share my initial wrap up of the reviews of four novels written by Ali Smith, namely, The Seasonal Quartet. I have no idea about whether it would be helpful for someone or not, but I just thought someone may find it convenient, someone who follows a similar dirty googling pattern like me. If I have some time, I can curate the links, highlight the useful reviews and cleanup the idle ones —didn’t happen.
Autumn [2016]
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/12/autumn-ali-smith-review
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/books/review/autumn-ali-smith.html
- https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/ali-smiths-autumn-is-a-post-brexit-masterpiece/516660/
- https://www.npr.org/2017/02/09/512910724/autumn-champions-free-spirits-and-the-lifeforce-of-art?t=1621975446492
- https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/autumn-ali-smith-book-review-hamish-hamilton-a7369711.html
- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ali-smith/autumn-smith/
- https://themillions.com/2018/01/on-ali-smiths-autumn-and-winter.html
- https://slate.com/culture/2017/02/ali-smiths-autumn-reviewed.html
- https://chireviewofbooks.com/2017/03/30/ali-smith-breaks-down-walls-in-autumn/
- https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/autumn-by-ali-smith-review-brexit-remix-in-the-summer-of-hate-1.2841541
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/26556725?seq=1
- https://www.startribune.com/review-autumn-by-ali-smith/412613403/
- http://www.rs21.org.uk/2017/03/12/review-ali-smiths-autumn-the-first-brexit-novel/
- http://www.runspotrun.com/book-reviews/autumn-by-ali-smith/
- https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/autumn-review-ali-smiths-inventive-novel-is-a-delight-20161202-gt2ikz.html
- https://www.newstatesman.com/ali-smith-spring-quartet-review
- https://medium.com/@shashi_vsky/book-review-autumn-57ded8d013bf
Winter [2017]
- https://themillions.com/2018/01/on-ali-smiths-autumn-and-winter.html
- https://julias-books.com/2020/01/30/book-review-winter-by-ali-smith/
- https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/sc-books-winter-ali-smith-0110-story.html
- https://www.thenationalbookreview.com/features/2018/1/11/review-ali-smiths-winter-is-an-intricate-deep-novel-of-friendship-and-life
- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ali-smith/winter-seasonal/
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/29/the-power-of-the-literary-pun
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/05/winter-ali-smith-review
- https://www.themodernnovel.org/europe/w-europe/scotland/ali-smith/winter/
- https://www.npr.org/2018/01/10/575485859/winter-balances-dark-days-with-flashes-of-joy-and-light
- https://returnofanative.com/stories/winter-ali-smith/
- https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/01/ali-smith-turns-brexit-into-myth-in-winter/550430/
- https://openlettersreview.com/posts/winterby-ali-smith
- https://www.damitrimartinez.com/book-reviews/autumn-and-winter-by-ali-smith-a-double-review
- https://doublepluslovely.com/writing/winter-by-ali-smith/
- https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/winter-review-ali-smiths-invigorating-second-book-in-her-seasonal-series-20180118-h0k7v5.html
- https://writtenbysime.com/2017/11/13/review-winter-by-ali-smith/
- https://slate.com/culture/2018/01/ali-smiths-winter-the-second-of-her-seasonal-quartet-reviewed.html
Spring [2019]
- https://chireviewofbooks.com/2019/04/17/spring-might-be-ali-smiths-best-season-yet/
- https://booksfromscotland.com/2019/03/lee-randall-reviews-spring-by-ali-smith/
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2019/sep/23/not-the-booker-spring-by-ali-smith-review-topical-but-not-plausible
- https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/718328001/ali-smiths-spring-unfolds-like-a-fern
- https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/spring-ali-smith-review-novel-book-themes-migrant-crisis-jo-cox-donald-trump-a8845011.html
- (Interview) https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/has-art-anything-to-do-with-life-a-conversation-with-ali-smith-on-spring/
- https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2019/251-june-july-2019-no-412/5482-jack-callil-reviews-spring-by-ali-smith
- https://blog.pshares.org/spring-by-ali-smith/
- https://www.theliftedbrow.com/liftedbrow/2019/5/31/the-dislocation-of-now-a-review-of-ali-smiths-spring-by-will-cox
- https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/259056/spring-by-ali-smith/9781101969960/readers-guide/
- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ali-smith/spring-smith/
- https://mattcanada.wordpress.com/2020/07/13/book-review-spring-ali-smith/
- https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/books/spring-by-ali-smith-review-a4097701.html
- https://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/ali-smith-spring-reviewed-by-folly-gleeson/
- https://www.ft.com/content/b5f9c718-4b03-11e9-bde6-79eaea5acb64
- https://www.postandcourier.com/features/review-ali-smiths-spring-a-darker-installment-of-authors-seasons-quartet/article_969fa730-9765-11e9-a3f1-63de11b7c50e.html
- https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/book-review-ali-smiths-spring-is-a-vibrant-messy-piece-of-resistance
Summer [2020]
- https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/books/book-review-summer-ali-smith-2939508
- https://literaryreview.co.uk/seasons-heatings
- https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/5725/book-review-ali-smiths-seasonal-quartet
- https://www.straitstimes.com/life/arts/book-review-ali-smith-brings-the-heat-with-summer-the-covid-19-finale-to-her-brexit
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/02/summer-by-ali-smith-review-a-remarkable-end-to-an-extraordinary-quartet
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/books/review-summer-ali-smith.html
- https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905525916/ali-smith-brings-her-seasonal-quartet-to-a-close-with-summer
- https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/novel-times-on-ali-smiths-summer/
- https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/ali-smith-and-the-end-of-her-four-seasons-20210105-p56rxp.html
- https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/summer-ali-smith-review-seasonal-quarter-relevant-coronavirus-divided-nation-578501
- https://www.sallyflint.com/blog/ali-smiths-summer
- https://theartsdesk.com/books/ali-smith-summer-review-hopeful-present-beautifully-described
- https://www.ft.com/content/4174b1a0-01f0-42f8-b638-3745ad6f89d1
- https://blog.pshares.org/summers-true-fictions/
- https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/books/summer-by-ali-smith-review-a4523646.html
- https://best-believe.com/2020/09/07/untimely-endings-in-ali-smiths-summer/
- https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/books/review-summer-by-ali-smith/cid/1803682
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/summer-review-state-of-the-union-11598021292
- https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n19/clair-wills/caricature-time
All
- https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/summer-ali-smith-review-ben-masters/
- https://www.alluvium-journal.org/2019/12/16/contemporaneous-storytelling-and-emergent-seriality-in-ali-smiths-seasonal/
- https://www.full-stop.net/2021/01/06/features/essays/selma-franssen/families-fall-apart-while-friendships-flourish-in-ali-smiths-seasonal-quartet-selma-franssen/
- https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6949/the-art-of-fiction-no-236-ali-smith
- https://kiloranmag.org.uk/ali-smith-seasonal-quartet/
- https://talking-about-books.com/2020/11/28/beyond-the-seasons-ali-smiths-seasonal-quartet-autumn-winter-spring-summer/
- https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/review/smith-autumn-winter-spring-summer/
- https://thepunchmagazine.com/the-byword/non-fiction/a-monsoon-reading-of-ali-smith-amp-rsquo-s-seasonal-quartet-amp-mdash-autumn-winter-spring-and-summer
- https://medium.com/curious/ali-smiths-four-seasons-920dd674c8a4
- https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-08-12/her-fiction-that-captures-the-scary-news-cycle-and-beautifully-transcends-it