What is the importance of the "seasons" in the novel, Whereabouts?

The seasons in the novel represent the narrator's shifting psyche throughout the novel. For example, the narrator dislikes spring, saying it "doesn't invigorate" and that "the new light disorients" (14). Spring, representative of rebirth and new life, is "depleting" (14) to the narrator, who is disoriented by the light which itself symbolizes community. Winter, by contrast, makes the narrator "feel the weight of being alone" (103). The tension between the abundance of light and community and spring and the relative lack thereof in winter form an analogue to the narrator's continual struggle between solitude and community.