Glyph
In her feisty, graceful Glyph, Ali Smith mulls writing and language among other themes: it’s her best work since the lauded Seasonal Trilogy. Written language shape-shifts, from glyphs and runes to schematic sonnets to today’s emojis and texts; Smith’s experimentation links this notion with the political upheavals and moral betrayals of our moment. No Anglophone author channels molten rage with her level of skill ... Brims with whimsy, but it’s more than a game ... I won’t spoil the conclusion except to note the final three pages alone are worth the price of a hardcover. Once again Smith makes her case beautifully: art points the way forward, enduring across millennia, like those Sumerian tablets, yet transforming itself and us each day.
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It’s hard to summarise the story because there are so many disparate elements that flower from nowhere, with few handholds the reader can grab onto ... Lighter and subtler than Gliff ... Sometimes a little crazy is just what the world needs.
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Glyph’s primary power comes from its commitment to excavating the sediments of language; its etymological resonance and inference ... It is a bold move to be so morally unflinching, especially in the face of a perceived aesthetic orthodoxy that so often privileges distance and irony, but in Glyph we see a major British writer answering the call of the day when so many others have equivocated or turned away.
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