Just when you think there are enough Orwellian-style dystopias in the world along comes a book like Gliff. Ali Smith draws on the deep British tradition of authoritarian dystopias in this short novel. But she is also interested in language and the use of language, an aspect that becomes clearer with the knowledge that a companion book called Glyph will be released next year.
When Gliff opens, two teenagers are leaving their mother behind. They travel with a man called Leif back to their home but have to leave again when the building is surrounded by an ominous red circle. Leif ends up abandoning the two (although he says that he will be back) in an empty house in a small town. It turns out they are now ‘unverifiables’ (or UVs) and likely to be picked up by the authorities if not careful. But then younger sister Rose finds horses in an adjoining field and the two fall in with other unverifiables and their trajectory changes, at least for a while.
Besides the ominous, dystopian styling, readers a clued in early that things are not going to go well for the siblings. An early section entitled Brave New World is set five years on in which the older of the two, Bri, or Briar or Brice has found themselves a position in the hierarchy and claims to have no sister. In this future UVs work a production line, many injured as children forced to work stripping down old batteries.
But through all of this Smith still manages to be creative with her language and use of English. Whether it be in the word ‘Gliff’ itself which has many meanings and no meaning. Or in her chapter titles which morph from Brave New World to rave new old to rave n o (us).
Despite the book being narrated through the eyes of teenagers and young adults, it is not styled as a young adult book. This is not an adventure or a coming of age story so much as a story of survival under a repressive regime. Gliff is dystopia firmly in the tradition of Orwell and Huxley. UVs are people who the authorities have just decided are undesirable for some reason – immigrants, whistleblowers, poor people. And they are re-educated or put to work. The red line is used to indicate to the rest of the populace no go areas before those places are razed and replaced.
As already noted, there will be a companion novel coming in 2025 called Glyph, given the content and ending of Gliff, what that book might be is anybody’s guess but it promises to be interesting.