Gliff
Enriched by references to literature, art, and history, including Edgar Allan Poe, British painter George Stubbs, and the caves at Creswell Crags, which were first occupied by humans tens of thousands of years ago ... Hopefully Gliff will remain a cautionary tale and not be revealed as a glimpse into a crystal ball.
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A tricksy masterwork that straddles formal lines while reimagining Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel ... Gliff’s language is sparer than in her famous Quartet, yet she’s still throwing everything — art, literature, social justice, tart humor — against atrocities that damage our moral compasses and cripple our lives ... Can art and language shield us from our worst instincts? Smith wrestles with this question, veering from swaggering confidence to quiet resignation as she snaps the pieces of her puzzle into place.
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Isn’t quite as ablaze with formal daring as...defiantly unclassifiable books. For all its chronological fracturing and stylistic play, it follows many of the familiar tropes and beats of dystopian Y.A. fiction ... Smith’s prose, as ever, is the principal enchantment: profane, playful, perpetually alert to the pleasures and serendipity of words.
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