Glyph, by Ali Smith

 

Scottish novelist Ali Smith shows how the weight of history is still felt in the present. 

Two sisters, Petra and Patricia, are very close when growing up in the 1990s as young girls, but fall apart during adulthood. Petra, the older sister by two years, recalls strange incidents from their youth, in particular a story told to them by an elderly woman at a family party. The woman was some type of messenger during the Second World War and during an errand came upon a dead flattened body, probably run over by a tank. The remains of the body are like a thick leathery strap. The story haunts the girls as they play games that try to recreate the dead soldier. Another story, this one from the First World War, is equally shocking. A sensitive young soldier leads a horse rendered blind by chemical warfare into the woods, and doesn’t return. He is later found guilty of desertion and shot. 

In adulthood, Petra revisits these stories and out of the blue, contacts her estranged sister, Patricia. The two women re-connect, and Petra discovers Patricia now has a teenage daughter, Billie. Billie has gotten into a spot of bother with the police when attending a free Palestine protest. 

For the most part, Glyph (the name given to the flattened man) constitutes a dialogue between two sisters, seen from the perspectives of both women. A third perspective is offered by Billie, who brings a contemporary critique of war. The language Ali Smith employs is light and playful, with lots of amusing word games, giving the novel an immediate and of-the-moment aspect. It feels like the characters are there with you. Where things get dark is in the descriptions of war violence and the questions raised about the morality of portraying - whether in literature or child’s play - those who have died in tragic circumstances. Hence the novel swings from cheerful childhood innocence to the horror and violence of war.

A deceptively simple story told in a loose style that could have gone off the rails in the wrong hands, but Ali Smith shows a deft hand in balancing the light and the dark.

Glyph, by Ali Smith. Published by Hamish Hamilton. $39.99

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