Spring by Ali Smith

 

This is the third novel in Ali Smith's seasonal quartet.  She uses a medley of characters to discuss Britain's immigration policies.  There is Brittany King who has given up her dreams of writing to become a guard at an immigration detention facility.  There immigrants may linger for months or years even though the policy is no more than 72 hours.  They are treated as warehoused objects rather than individuals.  There is Richard Lease who has lost his old friend and mentor and isn't sure he wants to continue living in a world without her.  Then there is Florence.  She is a twelve year old girl who seems magical.  She can walk into a detention facility, into the office of the man who supervises the entire facility and get him to have the filthy communal toilets steam cleaned.  She doesn't need tickets to ride trains or other public conveyances and she can be invisible when she wants.  

These characters unite at a railroad station.  Richard is on the tracks, having decided that life is not worth living.  Florence saves him and he agrees to go with her and Brittany north to a place where he can honor his mentor.  It is unclear exactly what Florence's agenda is and Brittany is apparently taken to open her eyes to her life as it is now and what she wanted it to be.  

Ali Smith is a Scottish author who grew up in poverty.  She managed to shine academically and ended up at Cambridge.  She has been given various literature awards and is a CBE of the British Empire.  Her work has been short-listed four times for the Booker Prize and has won the Bailey Prize For Women.  She writes in an unique fashion, with short chapters and what seems random sentences that comes together to make a united point.  This work is recommended for readers of literary fiction.