“The words are only bits of words, lines of blurred or smeary words with the occasional whole word.”
When the publisher sent me an advanced copy of Ali Smith’s upcoming release, Glyph, I knew I needed to read the companion novel, Gliff (2024 Penguin Random House) first. It is my understanding that the novels are standalones, but Gliff is a novel that exists within the world of Glyph. I don’t regret my decision – I positively adored Gliff.
This is going to surprise you, but this was my very first Ali Smith novel. I know, right? Her previous Booker appearances were prior to me becoming invested in the entire longlist, and she seems to have been active during what I call my “dark ages” – marking the time I broke up with reading for a bit. So despite a very lauded career, she is a new to me author.
Gliff is set in a terrifying dystopian near-future. The novel follows two siblings, Briar/Brice/Bri and Rose, who have been abandoned by their mother’s boyfriend, Lief. The world is drawing bright lines, quite literally painting red lines to demarcate those considered UVs (unverifiables). UVs are people who have been outspoken, political activists, conservationists, on the grid, etc – basically anyone who bucks the system and doesn’t let “big brother” in or rubs someone, likely a man, the wrong way. Their mother had previously worked for a weedkiller company. While pregnant with Rose, she learned the truth about the product and became a whistleblower. She is a wanted UV. Because she learned the truth prior to her second child’s birth, there is no record of Rose in existence. When the novel opens, the siblings are leaving their mother at a hotel, where she is covering for her sister, Alana. The novel opens with the importance of family, particularly siblings, and that thread never frays.
Lief takes the children to an abandoned house and promises he will be back for them. There are horses next door and Rose befriends a grey gelding she names Gliff. The horses are being raised for slaughter, and Bri and Rose make a plan to purchase the pony from the neighbor boy, Colon/Colin, whose friendship is a risky one.
Bri is recalling this moment in their life after having pushed memories of their childhood and their sister from their head. They have been living as male, advancing in the very system their mother tried to protect them from by becoming the very thing they hated. There is a very small line about the things Bri endured in the void (the place where folks go to do the things that must remain secret) to get to where they are, to somehow convince the system they are verifiable – and it is extremely powerful how they mention it for what it was and refuse to talk about it further. When a woman who knew Rose is hired, memories come flooding back, and Bri makes a choice.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I wish Glyph was a continuation, but I know in my heart of hearts that Rose and Gliff have found the birds and trees, and they are waiting for Bri.
A Girl Named Tommi 