Winter

Art, a twenty-five-ish blogger, is going through a break-up and hires Lux, a stranger met at a bus stop to impersonate Charlotte, i.e. his ex, so we won't have to tell his mum Sophia - who is about to meet Charlotte for the first time - that he has just been dumped. When Lux and Art find Sophia in a bad state - underfed, neurotic - they call Iris, Sophia's sister, to care for her. 

This four characters - Art, Lux, Iris and Sophia - go on to have a very intense but ultimately meaningful Christmas, with many arguments, flashbacks and visions. As I realised a bit too late, the book plays with the Christmas canons, with Art and Sophia receiving the visits of Christmas spirits, in the form, for example, of floating heads and landscapes, as well as dreams. I didn't love these parts of the book, though I now get what was Smith's intention. What I was able to appreciate were some of the dialogues - sometimes really funny and witty, poetic and clever. I also enjoyed that instead of going down the easy path of romance, the book explored family relationships, the difficulty of growing up - not just as kids but also as young adults trying to become functional, good human beings - and above all navigating different mindsets and worldviews.

Iris is what some would disparagingly call a social justice warrior, she cares deeply about politics and actually does stuff about it - protests, gets enraged, tries to make a difference through her work. Admittedly, she's also annoying, preachy and insensitive to the feelings of those closest to her. Sophia a art-loving business lady - not a cynic as much as someone who'd rather to see all the messed up things that go on in the world. I like to think that Iris and Sophia are not too kind of people, as much as two drives that we all have in us, though the Sophia in us is often having the upper hand...