Spring by David Szalay

Spring Reviews

• 
  Jessica

  An unconventional novel in the tradition of realism, and I'll take David Szalay over Jonathan Franzen any day. The subjects are romantic love, money, social class. At the heart of the novel is the relationship between Katherine and James, which though many months in, still feels like early days. James is maddeningly passive, inert. And yet...
  Horse racing also figures in. Not a lot happens in terms of a traditionally constructed plot, it seems Szalay is trying more for the ebb and flow of real life, business, and affairs. The writing is exquisite. You do need to be patient but there is a pay off if you are. Original in its construction.
• 
  Shawn Ruth

  Won this as an advanced reader copy through Goodreads -- I have mixed feelings about this book. It is about a guy and a girl who start a relationship while she has been separated from her husband for over a year. What I liked about this book was how real it was. Everything was presented in this book like it would have happened in a real relationship in real life. Many books try for this but fail to achieve it. However, there were many things I didn't like about this book. The reader never gets a glimpse into why these people even started a relationship; if there was ever a glow or spark. I'm sure there was, but you never see it. You are only introduced to them after they have started the relationship and you only read about them struggling, trying to make it work, and not understanding where the other person in the relationship is coming from. The girl never really seems that interested in him, so I could never figure out why she even hooked up with him to begin with. The whole time I kept thinking, "What did they even see in the other person to begin with?" and my question was NEVER answered. Because there was already some sort of chasm in the relationship when we meet the characters and we never actually get a flashback scene or the narrator explaining the start of the relationship, I found myself not really caring that much if they could make the relationship work or not. On top of this, the author would also go into tangents about some side characters who don't play that big of a part to the plot. I found myself SO BORED during those few times. So unnecessary. Overall, I was glad when I finished the book, so I wouldn't have to read it anymore.
• 
  Nick Davies

  Around two thirds of this was very good - astute and beautifully observed descriptions of the relationship between two flawed people in London, very saddening and slightly frustrating at times, but with merit and aspects that will resonate with other readers as it did with myself. The miserable nature did leave me a little dissatisfied, but it was an involving and interesting story in that sense.
  
  I found the remainder - poorly delineated flashbacks, nostalgia, changes in POV and time - irritating. I got nothing from descriptions of people with more money than sense wasting their (and my) time on flights of fancy and get rich quick schemes. I cared little for too much of this shirt novel as a consequence, sharp contrast with the ordinary realism of a man and a woman not communicating with each other and struggling to find a balance between fun and contentment.
  
  Oh and the author over-used the word ‘evanescence’, which jarred.
• 
  Solistas

  Ο James ασχολείται με επιχειρήσεις από τα 17 του. Σύντομα θα γίνει εκατομμυριούχος αλλά με τη φούσκα του χρηματιστηρίου θα χάσει τα πάντα. H Katherine δουλεύει στη ρεσεψιόν ένος ακριβού ξενοδοχείου στο κέντρο του Λονδίνου. Ξεκίνησε προσωρινά εκεί με σκοπό σύντομα να ανοίξει ένα δικό της μικρό ξενοδοχείο. Στη δουλειά θα ερωτευτεί κ κατόπιν θα παντρευτεί έναν γοητευτικό παπαράτσι. Το βιβλίο βρίσκει τους δύο πρωταγωνιστές σε άσχημη περίοδο. Η Katherine είναι χωρισμένη εδώ κ ένα χρόνο κ ο James προσπαθεί να βρει πάλι τα πατήματά του αγοράζοντας ένα αγωνιστικό άλογο.
  
  Στο βιβλίο αυτό έπεσα κάπως στην τύχη. Μου έκαναν δώρο νωρίτερα μες τη χρονιά το επόμενο του βιβλίο που κατέληξε στην longlist του περσινού Booker (All That Man Is) κ μόλις πέτυχα σχεδόν τζάμπα το Spring το πήρα με σκοπό να ξεκινήσω από εδώ. Η αλήθεια είναι πως πολλά από αυτά που περίμενα τα βρήκα. Ο Szalay είναι καλός συγγραφέας κ η ιστορία είναι απόλυτα ρεαλιστική κ κατ'επέκταση ανθρώπινη. Οι χαρακτήρες αναπτύσσονται με πολύ ωραίο τρόπο (όχι μόνο οι δύο πρωταγωνιστές αλλά κ οι δορυφόροι γύρω τους, με αποκορύφωμα τον συνέταιρο του James, Freddy) κ σε γενικές γραμμές το βιβλίο κυλάει γρήγορα.
  
  Δυστυχώς όμως τίποτα δεν ξεχωρίζει πραγματικά εδώ. Ο Szalay φαίνεται να πιστεύει ο ρεαλισμός φτάνει για να ταυτιστεί ο αναγνώστης. Προσωπικά αυτό που κατάφερε ήταν απλά να μην μου περάσει απ'το μυαλό να το παρατήσω. Εν τέλει, χωρίς να είναι κακό βιβλίο δεν είναι κ κάτι που θα πρότεινα κ��που, ίσως μόνο στους περίεργους που θέλουν να εξερευνήσουν άγγλους συγγραφείς που έχουν καλό όνομα στη χώρα τους αλλά δύσκολα θα μεταφραστούν ποτέ στα ελληνικά. Δεν ξέρω πως ακριβώς μεταφράζονται τα παραπάνω, ας πούμε:
  2,5*
  
  Υ.Γ. Ωραίο φινάλε πάντως.
• 
  Christie

  I gave up with 100 pages to go. Our main narrator is a sad sap who you just wish would make a decent decision. I didn't want to spend time with him and I couldn't see why Katherine didn't cut him loose. The point of view is totally unbalanced and what made me finally throw in the towel was when the POV shifted 160 some pages in to a character we'd never even met before.
• 
  Xenja

  È stata una sorpresa e una gioia trovare in biblioteca, sul banco delle novità, un nuovo libro di Szalay, uno dei miei autori contemporanei preferiti; per la prima volta un romanzo, dopo tanti splendidi racconti. (C’è anche un romanzo precedente, The Innocent, ma mai tradotto in Italia). L’autore però è ‘scaduto’ da Adelphi a LiberiLibri: gli editori sono avidi, ho pensato, probabilmente non ha venduto abbastanza con i primi libri, così Adelphi l’ha scaricato. Invece dopo averlo letto devo ammettere, con vivo dispiacere, che questo romanzo è pessimo. Non ho ritrovato nemmeno la scrittura di Szalay, nitida, limpida, affilata, elegante. E il soggetto… mah! Non è nemmeno chiaro quale sia, il soggetto. Abbiamo un ragazzo e una ragazza sui trent’anni. Si incontrano, vanno a letto insieme. Lui sembra innamorato, ma non formula pensieri romantici, è intimidito e non osa farsi avanti con intenzioni chiare. Lei è indecisa, un giorno ci sta e un giorno no, tentenna all’infinito, fa la misteriosa. Lui non chiede, lei si infastidisce perché lui non chiede e allora non dice. Quello che emerge è un quadro desolato di giovani che non sanno più fare all’amore, per usare un termine arcaico ma non ancora sostituito, perché paralizzati dalle nuove regole del vivere moderno, rispettosi della libertà altrui fino all’assurdo. A volte compare un personaggio secondario e lo seguiamo per qualche pagina, divagando, senza che la divagazione sia minimamente interessante o aggiunga nulla alla trama: abbozzi di ritratti.
  Un romanzo inconsistente, che non va da nessuna parte. Sembra quasi impossibile che sia stato scritto dalla penna fulminante, acuta, poetica, direi quasi geniale, di Szalay. Sono in lutto.
• 
  Kasa Cotugno

  This is a very sly book. Initially it starts out as a chick lit romance with a incomprehensibly smitten man and a unusually reluctant but permissive woman, but as the story unfolds, their ;motivations prove not so clearcut. Katherine and James meet at a wedding and embark on a frustrating, inconclusive affair. The reasons for attraction are unclear and not fully explained, but each has histories that are explained in retrospect. He is not quite the pushover he seems, and her attraction remains somewhat elusive. Neither is completely sympathetic or likable, but this makes them more interesting to read about as long as the reader doesn't have to look upon them as friends. What I enjoyed most were the ancillary characters, many of which were more interesting than the two at the plot's center. Backgrounds of hangers on, friends and associates make for some compelling narration, and at times the plot would dogleg into uncharted territory. By book's end I was glad I had stayed with it. Szalay has a true talent for dialogue and almost a Proustian sensibility for sensuous detail. Many references are made to the unique light of London, particularly during this rainy spring when the book is set The reader can see, feel and smell the atmosphere.
• 
  Liviu

  read a few pieces from D. Szalay that intrigued me a lot - his story youth from The Paris review and the excerpt from Granta - so I decided to try his most well known novel (and the only one published in the US so far); quite readable and generally keeping my interest but ultimately kind of meh, why did I bother sort; still liked the writing quite a lot so I plan to see if his next book (or story) is more interesting as this one would have made a great novella/story but kind of fails at novel (even short) length by not having much to say
• 
  Stephen

  found this book very similar in parts to on chesil beach by ian mcewan with details of a relationship going nowhere and both sides not really knowing their deeper feelings through insecurity and neediness
• 
  Mandy

  David Szalay’s 3rd novel is very much about contemporary life in London amongst a group of people whose obsessions with making money and forging relationships are often undermined by their own failings and uncertainties. James, a former dot-com entrepreneur, falls in love with Katherine, who although separated from her husband cannot quite break away from him and seems unable to commit to another relationship.
  Szalay’s style is laconic and his use of short sentences – and often of verb-less sentences – reflect the somewhat superficial lives his characters inhabit. However, this rather distancing style leads the reader to feel distanced from the characters themselves and leads to a curiously flat reading experience. As a result I found I simply didn’t care about any of them, in the same way that they don’t seem to care about anyone or anything else much either. Although this may well be the intention of the writer, it didn’t recommend itself to me as an enjoyable reading experience.
  
• 
  Esther

  One of the 2013 Granta best young British novelists. I'd never heard of him so decided to try this, his most recent novel. Hmm. Just ok. The two main characters engaged in a doomed love affair at the center of the book are not terribly illuminated and the dialogue I found really immature. Here are two people in their thirties, with lots of life experience (marriages, career changes, far flung travel) and yet they seem unable to communicate with each other. Not in a profound difference of personality/chemistry mismatch - no that would be interesting but its page after page of 'do you want to meet up tomorrow' 'do you want to' 'what do you think' 'no what do you think' 'I'm not sure, call me later'. Frustrating, like listening in to a teenage cell phone call.
• 
  Bettie

  No dedication.
  
  Opening - London light in the scuffed, keyed windows of a Piccadilly-Line train from Heathrow. London light on the open spaces it hurries past, on the passing spokes of perdendicular suburban streets, on playing fields seen through a perimeter line of faint shadowed trees.
  
  Cardboard cut-out Warning:
  
  
  
  Read it all hoping that something was going to happen...
  
  ....it didn't
  
  
• 
  Wayland Smith

  I didn't care for this one. It's the story of a love affair in London between two fairly passive people who don't seem to quite know what they want about anything. Neither of them are very likable. Random things happen as James, the man, wanders through life and Katherine, the woman, can't seem to make up her mind who she wants to be with. It ends with their future uncertain. Not very satisfying.
• 
  Turkey Hash

  A little re-read - his writing makes me swoon! Maybe bitty but worth it for the prose. Reminds me of Gwendoline Riley in his ability to pick a perfect, unusual word at the right moment.
• 
  Christine

  I'm a big fan - Szalay is funny, affecting, deeply intelligent, and makes novel-writing seem easy, but oh God, you know it's not.
• 
  Victoria Kellaway

  Nailed it. I intend to buy several copies of this book for friends so we can devour it, discuss it, and then deny it bears any resemblance.
• 
  Mark Jackson-Hancock

  I read Spring in instalments over a fortnight during my commute between Richmond and Waterloo and I couldn’t wait to get on the train and start reading. I can’t tell you how much I love this novel. It’s a wonderful piece of writing, the prevailing tone most of subtle irony and understatement, but he led me also to places in my heart where I haven’t been for a long time. The love story seems real and both sides are told convincingly. It contains some of the best sex scenes (non-pornographic) I’ve ever read. I felt the range of characters could all be on train with me and I feel I’ve met some of them. And the comedy is brilliant, pure high literary comedy that when I started laughing I couldn’t stop, especially during the elopement scene. One of the best set pieces is at a UKP rally: you think it’s going to be a farce but it’s not and I finished the chapter with tears rolling down my cheeks. I want to give Nigel Farrage a hug—never thought a novel could make me want to do that.
  
  My last word would be that this is a great London novel and it captures in some sublime moments. Here’s a random paragraph (Hugo is his St Bernard):
  
  He slings the tennis ball in the twilight under the tree, slings it with all his strength, twisting his torso and whipping into the throw, trying to find the trajectory the will send Hugo over the still-wintery lawn. His exciting voice as he pursues it punctures the low moan of the traffic endlessly orbiting the square. Something is not ok. He is thinking again of that strange moment on Monday afternoon on the poolside. Something happened in Marrakech, something he does not know about. When they leave the square it is evening and the signs on the hotel fronts are illuminated.
  
  David Szalay I love you. May you keep writing forever and I want to read every word.
  
  
• 
  Mark Joyce

  I love David Szalay and have previously declared my willingness to fight anybody who disputes that he is both a fine writer and an important one, documenting a particular type of early 21st century suburban London shitness better than anybody I can think of. This remains my view, even whilst admitting that Spring is not his finest work. The storyline and perspective are all over the place and this would have been a much stronger book with more sustained focus on the central character James and the dodgy horse gambling syndicate in which he embroils himself. I know (having consumed his every public utterance with stalker-like insatiability) that David Szalay views it much the same way.
  
  It's not all bad by any means. Szalay evokes hangovers so powerfully that you can almost smell them and is also particularly strong on the horrors of the professional middle class social gathering. There are echoes of the brilliantly characterised, directionless and needy male drifters that make the more accomplished London and the Southeast and All That Man Is so good. I was surprised to discover that Spring was Szalay's third novel to be published because it definitely has the feel of an early work of a writer developing towards bigger and better things.
  
• 
  Sandra

  Must be my age - I hadn't realised I'd already given this second chance; a third read left me irritated and not especially admiring.
  
  I expected something different from the blurb, something more frenetic perhaps.
  Whether it was because of the contrast (which was why I chose to read this next)with the three fast-paced crime novels which had preceded my reading this) what I happily) got was a peaceful, somewhat disjointed, look at a 21st century, selfish, self-centred London couple trying to make a go of a relationship. In one way it was sad, in another an eye-opener that that's how folks are these days, but mostly what was so striking that for all their alien behaviour they nevertheless came over a very solid and real people, which is a credit to David Szalay's writing. The other characters were just as well-written and the indeterminate happenings a mirror of real life.
  
  And, four years later, it's just as alien to me, and no less enjoyable. More impressive in that I see the strength of the tale, in the quietness of its drama
• 
  James

  All of the ingredients were there for me to love another David Szalay book, but when I came to the end of it, I felt a bit cheated. It wasn't that the ending was bad, it was that it didn't feel like it was the end at all, and the world I liked, with characters I wanted to find out more about, was suddenly over, and I had many unanswered questions.
  
  From a plotting point of view, why did we have James meet his uncle at his sister's dinner party, and why was he always talking to Miranda? Why did he visit his father's house? Who were Miriam and Thomasina? And why on earth did Simon narrate in a regional accent?
  
  Szalay's writing style is good enough for me to read his books anyway, and I never tire of the London setting. James, Katherine and Fraser were decent characters, fully formed and not black and white good or bad guys. I didn't like Katherine, who frequently accused James and Fraser of not saying anything yet ducking any questions asked of her, but that was ok.
  
  The issue was that the plot was fragmented, developed at an odd pace, frequently went to seemingly random flashbacks, and came to a slightly weird conclusion. It actually ended with a Final Event, but with little resolution of what it actually meant for the characters. The treatment of UKIP supporting Simon was a bit cartoonish too, and his grammatically incorrect narration seemed a bit snobby. Combined, this makes me think Szalay could have done better.
• 
  Albert Steeg

  A novel told from the point of view of four very different characters. Main character is a winner and loser of the IT-bubble with vague plans to become a winner again. Others are a receptionist in a luxury hotel with big dreams and expectations, a papparazzi with dreams of a better life, a dodgy horse trainer with political aspirations and last but not least an enjoyer of life without expectations, only adjusting to whatever is coming his way and exploiting that to the most. They all influence each other's lifes, use the others without excuse, escaping loneliness. Things go wrong because of the lack of real feeling for the other; the lack of real commitment and misunderstandings, maybe because of that. All in all life is here shown as one big disappointment and missed opportunity.
  This all sounds like the book is very dark, but it is not. It's very enjoyable and I'm certain readers will recognise certain situations in the book as something they could have encountered themselves or maybe really did.
  I can really recommend it.
• 
  Shayma

  David Szalay can write - his prose about sunsets, light filtering in, and the human body, are lovely. But as the novel progresses, they seem a bit contrived and overdone; laid on a bit too thick. He knows how to draw you into the mind of a character. That's why I gave him 2 stars (rather than 1). But he doesn't know how to tell a story. What's the plot of the novel? Also, the characters are rather apathetic and flat. They don't care about anyone or anything, so I felt that I didn't really care about the novel. I've lost precious hours of my life reading this book - should have been reading something better. I would not recommend this book.
• 
  Nick Milinazzo

  Excuse me as I unapologetically gush about this work.
  Not often, but every now and again, you pick up a book that reinforces a) why you love to read, and b) what the essence of quality literature is. "Spring" is that book. I'd never previously heard of Szalay - I just happened to purchase this piece through my kindle one day. After the first few pages, it's clear why he's one of the best British authors (under 40). His voice is unique yet familiar. The prose is beautiful and tragic. The intelligence of Jonathan Franzen with the inherent loneliness of David Foster Wallace with the spryness of Iain Banks. This novel easily earns a place in my Top 10.
• 
  Sarah

  I really wanted to like this book, to see it as a deeply meaningful examination of the interior world of people struggling to understand how they felt and how to build a relationship with someone else. I tried to see it as a picking-apart of the death of the Thatcher dream of self-made millionaires and on the bursting of the dot.com bubble. But I couldn't.
  
  I found it depressing, irritating, dull, overlong. I was so pleased to get to the end.
  
  I hope other people can find more in it and enjoy it. The writing is excellent.
  
  I will try another of his books. But I need something (probably several things) with a story and a bit of light and life first.
• 
  Sam Gilbert

  The perspective shifts about, from standard-issue Szalay useless male protagonist to out-of-his-class girlfriend and vicious horse trainer, but no matter where we go it's never really spring. It's really chilly, damp, unhappy. Hardly a hint of sunshine. And finally what are these characters but types?
  
  Szalay lays the literary writing on a bit thick, reminding us every few pages his theme is light, overdoing it a bit on the adverbs, but despite all that he is good. He gives us the uncertainties of romance, the inability to break out of our narcissism and connect, in scenes as honest as Kundera (a writer he resembles not at all).
  
  So many cigarettes are smoked, so many embraces shrugged off, so many fucks fucked, that one needs a long walk in the fall rain to feel a bit clean after finishing this.
• 
  Andrew McClarnon

  A strange collection of colourful incidents connecting a rather seedy collection of characters. Every so often James and Katherine have a passionate fling, and then go their separate ways, he's keener than her, but she's depressed and drifting, as is he. The single life never looked so unappealing. I'd give it a higher rating if there was more form, but it was nice in the telling of its moments. Perhaps just like the lives of its cast.
• 
  Paul Ryan

  Between three and four stars for me. Found this book quite frustrating. Ive read other stories by the writer and really liked them. And there was a lot that I really loved in this. A lot that seemed very true about relationships and affairs. A scene in Edinburgh in particular that I really thought was great. But I didn't care enough about the characters.
• 
  Julian Tooke

  A book about how difficult it is to love and maintain relationships. It’s beautifully written, often unexpectedly moving and a paean to London. It took some time for me to feel submerged in this book, but when I was, I loved it.