"She's got used to the idea now that she'll probably never be able to buy a house. It's no big deal, no one can these days except people who are loaded, or whose parents die, or whose parents are loaded."
"Autumn" is hailed as the first post-Brexit novel and after a while I understood why. There is no specific mention of it by name, there is just the "vote" and there is the aftermath - a country divided. The novel's opening lines "It was the worst of times. It was the worst of times. Again." reflect this quite clearly.
"All across the country there was misery and rejoicing."
There are two main characters here, connected yet separate, coming together at different points in the story. Daniel Gluck is 101 and he is in a nursing home. Elisabeth Demand is 32 and she is a junior lecturer at a London university. We soon find out that they were neighbors when Elisabeth was a child and this leads to a multitude of stories about the adventures the two shared.
Elisabeth's chapters are more grounded, they are in the present, she is dealing with the fallout of the vote, wondering if she'll lose her job, struggling with the bureaucracy of getting a passport, and visiting Daniel. She is rooted in the present, unwilling to think about what the future holds because from her standpoint it's pretty bleak.
"Overnight, like a girl in a myth being hunted by a god who's determined to have his way with her, she has altered herself, remade herself so she can't be had by anyone."
When it comes to Daniel's chapters, it's like following the rambling thread of this thoughts. His world is especially chaotic, and as he is sleeping, it is his memories or even dreams we see, so there are no rules as to how and when things happen. He goes from rhyming, to thinking about his sister, to dreams about being naked in front of someone and being aroused... It's a bit hard to follow in the beginning, but as you get used to it, it just becomes natural. It's simply Daniel's voice.
There is no coherent storyline, or a timeline for that matter. It jumps from one story into another, from present to past and further past and then back to the present. It's unclear if the past is simply memories or maybe they're dreams or a combination of both. It is also unclear sometimes whose memories they are - maybe Daniel's because Elisabeth cannot recollect much about the past.
"A great many men don't understand a woman full of joy, even more don't understand paintings full of joy by a woman."
Another thread we follow is about two women: Christine Keeler, best known for her involvement in the Profumo affair, and a female pop-artist Pauline Boty. Boty painted Keeler and this is why her story is mentions, but there is also a link between Daniel, Pauline and Elisabeth. It's a tragic and fascinating story, but it was touching how Elisabeth fought for Pauline's legacy and for her artistry to be acknowledges in the academic circles.
And so it goes, back a forth, revealing little by little the stories of all the characters, peeling away their armor and exposing what's underneath. The writing lends it an ethereal quality, almost whimsical, as it's airy and poetic but not pretentious so you cannot follow it, or would need a dictionary. Definitely give this a go if you like character driven books.
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