Autumn

This book by Ali Smith, intended to be the first in a 4-part seasonal series, was my book group's choice for May. I read it; I did not like it, although there was one passage that I will copy below because it was very clear and spoke to me, appropo of our times. This book got absolutely glowing reviews from many sources.
NYTimes: the first great "Brexit novel"; one of their 10 best books of 2017.
The Guardian says, "Autumn is a beautiful, poignant symphony of memories, dreams and transient realities; the “endless sad fragility” of mortal lives."
NPR says Ali Smith could be "J.D. Salinger's natural heir."
The Atlantic calls her book a "post-Brexit masterpiece."

From an interview with author Jeanette Winterson, we get a short bio, to wit, "She tells me not to worry about the facts of her life – they are simple and there is no scandal. She was born in 1962, one of five children from a Scottish working-class family. She studied at Aberdeen, and then at Cambridge, for a PHD that was never finished. A stint of working as a lecturer at Strathclyde in 1990, convinced her that she could never cut it as an academic."
She writes in several genres (poetry, short stories, plays, fiction) and you can find lists of her work here.
The NYTimes also says, apparently as a compliment, "Chronology skips forward and backward and sideways, moving slowly and then quickly. 'A minute ago it was June,' the author says. 'Now the weather is September.' Smith’s writing is fearless and nonlinear, exploring the connectivity of things: between the living and the dead, the past and the present, art and life. She conveys time almost as if it is happening all at once, like Picasso trying to record an image from every angle simultaneously."
This is part of what I didn't like about the book. I often did not know who was talking, or when in the chronology of events they were speaking. I didn't know anything about some of the prominent speakers, e.g., Christine Keeler.  But I read to the end, partly because that is my commitment to the book group and partly because I figured there had to be a pony in there somewhere. Call me old fashioned, but I like well-constructed sentences and an identifiable cast of characters--especially if there are characters I can at least empathize with--, and some sense of a timeline and purpose to the writing.
But here is the passage that did grab me (spoken by the main character's mother):
"I'm tired of the news. I'm tired of the way it makes things spectacular that aren't, and deals so simplistically with what's truly appalling. I'm tired of the vitriol. I'm tired of the anger. I'm tired of the meanness. I'm tired of the selfishness I'm tired of how we're doing nothing to stop it. I'm tired of how we're encouraging it. I'm tired of the violence there is and I'm tired of the violence that's on its way, that's coming, that hasn't happened yet. I'm tired of liars. I'm tired of sanctified liars. I'm tired of how those liars have let this happen. I'm tired of having to wonder whether they did it out of stupidity or did it on purpose. I'm tired of lying governments. I'm tired of people not caring whether they're being lied to any more. I'm tired of being made to feel this fearful. I'm tired of animosity. I'm tired of pusillanimosity." (p. 56-57)  Well said and I can only respond, "me, too!"