The Accidental

Aug 05, 2012 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, drama, funny, challenging, booker

This novel was shortlisted in the 2005 Booker. This and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go lost to John Banville's The Sea. I can't believe it!

Compared to "The Sea", this book's storytelling is very innovative. Brilliantly fresh. My first Ali Smith and I thought I was reading the 21st century equivalent of my favorite James Joyce. The first half is alienating because it basically uses stream-of-consciousness with the main characters having their own POVs per chapter and Smith used terms and events...more This novel was shortlisted in the 2005 Booker. This and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go lost to John Banville's The Sea. I can't believe it!

Compared to "The Sea", this book's storytelling is very innovative. Brilliantly fresh. My first Ali Smith and I thought I was reading the 21st century equivalent of my favorite James Joyce. The first half is alienating because it basically uses stream-of-consciousness with the main characters having their own POVs per chapter and Smith used terms and events that are basically known probably to people in England except when she used contemporary world-known lines from movies, e.g., "Love Actually" or songs, e.g., Streisand's "Love, soft as an easy chair". Then I saw myself singing while trying to figure out what was the book was trying to tell me. But I love it for its newness. I mean, Smith went everywhere with her narration especially in the first part, The Beginning. Then the plot started to take shape in the second part, The Middle before she finally tied all the loose ends and made herself clear in the last part called The End. On the criticism that the girl Amber's role seemed not to make sense, I think her role was just to let the family members realize their true selves.

The Smart family, composed of Michael, the father, Eve the mother, Magnus, the son and the daughter Astrid, is a typical Western dysfuntional family. In the beginning of the book, the young girl Astrid brings with her, anywhere she goes, a camera and she has this habit of capturing sunrises and sundowns. My take on this is that Astrid tries to filter what she sees through her camera because it is through the lens where she can figure out things better. It's kind of metaphor and I loved it.

One day, she finds a beautiful letter that her father wrote to her mother when they were still courting each other. This seems to have made her realize that their family was once a happy one. When the father was not yet having extra-marital affairs with his students, the son hasn't been the cause of his classmate suicide and the mother hasn't lost touch of the reality in her life. The reason why I said this is that towards the end when Astrid kisses her mother, "Eve was moved beyond believe by the kiss." It reminded me that we sometimes all get to busy with our everyday tasks and we forget kissing and hugging our loved ones. This is kind of a cliche but true.

My favorite character is of course Astrid. She is now one of the fictional characters that I will remember for a long time or maybe remember forever. Smith was able to beautifully capture the eccentricities and intensity of a 12-y/o lost character.

I will be reading more novels by Ali Smith for sure. Same goes for Kazuo Ishiguro: I'm currently reading my 7th novel written by him. But not for John Banville. After I read his "The Sea," I decided not to pick another one by him. This is one of those cases when I don't agree with the Booker jurors.
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Jan 23, 2012 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: smug male academics looking for inspiration

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: 1001 books list

Shelves: 1001-books, read-in-2011, bookcrossing-books

I cannot believe this book is on the 1001 books list. Do the people who write the list not like people who read books anymore? Why would they punish us so? 1001 list writers, once again I question you. Why?

I didn't enjoy reading it and to say I found the story a pointless and unrewarding read is probably an understatement. The book seemed to be nothing more than a series of poorly strung together literary devices... or maybe it was a vehicle for the trundling out of a series of literary devices...more

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Jun 12, 2008 Alicia B. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: writers and poets

Recommended to Alicia by: New York Times book list - go fig!

Shelves: favorite-reads, impossible-to-put-down, modern-books-writers-should-read

This is a must-read if you are a writer/poet (or poet who loves fiction). It's definitely a writer's book. I can see why many people would dislike it, but it's pure genius. JUST BRILLANT! If you understand lit-heads, poetry meter, characterization, plot lines, emotions, word choice, undercurrent and themes... Well, let's just say you're sure to enjoy and appreciate this novel and its style.

I love how it's broken up into 3 sections (the beginning, the middle and the end). I love how the chapters...more

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Nov 13, 2008 Tyler rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Tyler by: Lindsey Claeyssen

Shelves: 2008, read-while-in-hungary

Turns out the thirty year old Eggleston photo on the cover was my favorite thing about this book. Smith can certainly turn out some lovely prose, and couple it with unique approaches to fictional perspective, maybe along the lines of Virginia Woolf's flowery poeticism and narrative experiments. And there are plenty of interesting pieces of the puzzle here (I feel OK using this cliché since one of the book's characters is obsessed with the idea of clichéd language), but they never congeal into an...more

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Oct 28, 2007 Robin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love Ali Smith. She's so inventive and irreverent. The Accidental sprang from a dream she had, and it's dreamlike. Smith often uses multiple perspectives to weave together a story. I happen to like this--and I find her really gifted at inhabiting different voices. Her other book, Hotel World, really knocked my socks off too. But the Accidental asks different questions (Hotel World was kind of a mystery about a girl who fell down an elevator shaft). Questions like: who are we and how do we end...more

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Aug 03, 2007 Elizabeth added it · review of another edition Recommends it for: intelligent readers

I read this a while ago, and recently someone wrote me to ask what I thought about it. What I remember is that I love Smith's writing, the way she's made stream-of-consciousness completely contemporary and engaging. The story was confusing, and the person who wrote to me proposed such a brilliant (and retrospectively obvious) interpretation of the book. It suddenly all made sense, and I can't remember if I thought of it at the time at all. Anyway. It's a great book, and she's an amazing writer....more

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Feb 27, 2013 Steven rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ali Smith is obviously a genius, a savant, a being whose prolific intelligence is a gift not merely to readers, but to humanity. Or at least, her editors seem to think so. (Why not tell a wondrously gifted writer when she’s written too much? When the clever has become the clumsy, the prodigy pedantic?)

This ambitious novel begins by promising to examine one of the most fascinating subjects available to novels and those who love them: the interplay between “real life” and story. Such examination i...more Ali Smith is obviously a genius, a savant, a being whose prolific intelligence is a gift not merely to readers, but to humanity. Or at least, her editors seem to think so. (Why not tell a wondrously gifted writer when she’s written too much? When the clever has become the clumsy, the prodigy pedantic?)

This ambitious novel begins by promising to examine one of the most fascinating subjects available to novels and those who love them: the interplay between “real life” and story. Such examination is executed in the form of a plot (action, characters, scenes) and a subplot (constant collages of quotes, bits of poetry, scenes out of books, plays, and possibly every film ever shot in English, from the silent era to Men in Black).

The device is not without precedent, though it has rarely been asked to work so hard or so noisily. Where many writers interested in life-as-story will examine the issue through one insightful character—-Hamlet comes to mind—-and a few key scenes in which he addresses the topic as Hamlet does so famously, Smith gives us a story with no less than five characters, each a genius of one sort or another, and at least four of whom are plagued by minds that never, ever stop editing, analyzing, counting and quantifying, obsessively comparing their lives to stories, poems, mathematical theorems and scientific propositions of all kinds. This is not merely a stream of consciousness. It is, as the book’s Astrid Smart (age 13) might phrase it, the Amazon River of consciousness, the Mississippi-Nile-Congo-Ganges-Danube-Euphrates-Hudson-Rhine-Thames-Yangtze-Zambezi-(and so on for two or three pages), a disconnected flow of tangent upon tangent and layer upon layer, until you are drowning in the metaphorical, wondering what happened to the action in the “real world” of the story. Yet, for all that, this novel about the interplay of real-life and story delivers more flash than substance. I read it as chapter upon chapter of clever wordplay and sleight of hand, but no answers to admittedly good questions about life-as-story-as-life. Smith gives the reader what her character Eve Smart gives interviewers at a book signing, which she attends intent on answering every question with a question, "so she might appear open, while actually remaining rhetorically closed." In the end, to the questions of what role story plays in real life, Smith provides only more questions. Good questions, but questions only. As another character might put it, the “end result = nothing. No new insight.”

To be fair, Smith spins a good yarn, when she is not being overtly clever and overdosing on figurative possibilities and potential layers of meaning. It's good work: decent action and characters. And she asks good questions, as I said. Considering that art versus reality has fascinated philosophers and artists and literary critics at least since Aristotle, Smith can hardly be expected to somehow answer all the questions that might be asked on the subject. Moreover, this is a skeptical age. Aristotle and Plato are entirely unwelcome in fiction. Questions are permitted, but Moderns will hardly tolerate anything posing as answers. Still, “in the end,” the book promises more than it delivers.

Personally, I owe the author a debt. Because should I ever write another novel (or revise the over-built doorstop collecting dust in my laptop), I now have a new mission: no matter how smart I might be, I will not reveal it in fiction. Because reading The Accidental has convinced me that if a novel has me speculating about the impressive IQ or education of the writer, then the book’s own content has distracted me from the story itself. I want readers to be engaged. I want to be engaged. It’s not about the writer. And that’s not to say it was Smith’s intent, conscious or otherwise. But I found the constant, even ubiquitous demonstration of her wit and of her breadth and depth of knowledge on numerous subjects distracting. It felt self-consciously smart. Witty, sure. And clever. But too much wit and too much cleverness. How ironic, “typical and ironic,” that the main characters are united by the surname “Smart.” Of course they are. But the smartest one of all is the Puppeteer holding the strings. I found myself looking too closely at not only the strings, but the Puppet Master, whose gloves and sleeves and wry smiles at her own jokes were just a little too visible behind and above it all, like the Wizard of Oz, trying to keep the illusion afloat.

Nevertheless, I like Smith. I like her themes, her curiosity, and her interest in subjects that interest me. I like her characters and her insight on so many subjects. She does ask good questions. This review may be much ado about little. But I found that little to be distracting throughout the whole. If the pages and pages of four highly caffeinated and obsessively reflective streams of consciousness where cut by 40 percent, this would be a better book.(less)

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Jan 17, 2010 Erin rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't relish giving a book one star, but The Accidental was the rare book that I found so unreadable that I couldn't even finish it. The writing style was very affected and intentionally obtuse, making the book unpleasant and difficult to read. The characters were whiny and self-involved beyond all reason. There were huge logic gaps (such as why Amber was allowed to hang about the house, uninvited and unknown to all of them-- hello?!) and pithy observations. Ugh. I struggled and struggled with...more

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Nov 02, 2007 Debbietola rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed the style and writing - it's interesting to read each piece from the different perspectives of the main characters. I'd never read Ali Smith before so was very pleased and impressed. I must admit, though, I'm left a little disappointed, as I don't think I fully "got" it at the end. The book jacket mentions the "wonderfully enigmatic conclusion" and I agree it was definitely enigmatic! Didn't take away from me enjoying the book, but I wouldn't recommend to anyone who wants clear...more

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Feb 27, 2009 Carrie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Accidental is a book with a lot of literary buzz in Britain. It is a finalist for the Whitbread Award and for the Booker. I had heard raves about it on Bookslut, too, so I decided to pick up a copy. I was, however, disappointed.*

I can understand why The Accidental is getting a lot of noise. Its a very "writerly" book and very good in that sense. It's written in a stream of consciousness type style, with every chapter representing the internal thoughts of one of the four main characters - Ast...more The Accidental is a book with a lot of literary buzz in Britain. It is a finalist for the Whitbread Award and for the Booker. I had heard raves about it on Bookslut, too, so I decided to pick up a copy. I was, however, disappointed.*

I can understand why The Accidental is getting a lot of noise. Its a very "writerly" book and very good in that sense. It's written in a stream of consciousness type style, with every chapter representing the internal thoughts of one of the four main characters - Astrid, Magnus, Eve or Michael. Eve is a writer, Astrid and Magnus are her children, and Michael her husband/their stepfather. Smith is especially good at writing the teenagers - it seems that she has absolutely captured the exploration and angst that adolescents go through. The parents are less interesting, because they seem more cliched. Michael is a professor who sleeps with all his students, Eve a writer who is unhappy with her childhood. Both are characters we have seen before (seriously, literary fiction would lead you to believe that every professor sleeps with his student, which really was not the case at either of the institutes of higher learning in which I attended). The children's voice was more fresh to me, and thus their chapters more interesting.

What really made me lose interest in the book, however, was the fact that nothing much happened. The plot, as promised by the book jacket, is that a mysterious stranger shows up at their summer house, and changes their lives forever. Could be promising, but in fact not much happens, and we are left unsure as to whether Amber, the stranger, ever really existed at all. The thing, is, I am not such a fan of artsy plotless writing exercise type books. I can get over that type of writing if there is an interesting story or interesting character (say, Mrs. Dalloway) to drag me along - which is why I enjoyed the children's chapters more than the adults'. This book didn't have enough other stuff for me to really enjoy it. I have been picking it up and putting it down since April - not a ringing endorsement for 306 page book with big print. I would say that if you like stream of consciousness/artsy writing you may enjoy this book. It is definitely well written in that style. If you prefer plot and characterization to writing skill, you may be left cold.

*And worse, when I went back to Bookslut and re-read the review I realized that if I had paid as much attention the site's reviews as I do to the blog, I would never have bought it, damn it. Bad memory + impulse book-buying = bad decisions by yours truly!!

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Mar 24, 2013 Poonam rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I will remember the book solely because of the literary devices used, imagination that comes through writing. Otherwise book wasn't particularly entertaining, something I am looking for when I read fiction. Ali Smith has divided book into three parts: The Beginning, The Middle and The End. In each part, there is a lesson from POV of each character. All characters are members of a western dysfunctional family with their individual issues. Mother is a writer, stepfather a Literature lecturer, and...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Ursula rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, fiction, england

This book started off intriguingly enough, told in a very distinctive voice we soon learn belongs to Astrid, a 12-year-old on holiday with her family in a "substandard" vacation rental. She's precocious and quirky, but child narrators pretty much have to be. Then the focus bounces back and forth between Astrid, her mother (Eve), her brother (Magnus), and her stepfather (MIchael). This method of storytelling can be very effective to help the reader understand what 's going on from multiple points...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Hilary G rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a book that met my personal criteria for a good read. First of all, it was linguistically very inventive and original. It was as different from a conventional novel as blank verse is from rhyming couplets. I haven't read anything quite like this before, and I think not everyone would like it as many people prefer their fiction more "straight". Not everything came off perfectly, for instance Astrid's sassy yet vulnerable "voice" was better realised than her mother's self-interviewing (wh...more This was a book that met my personal criteria for a good read. First of all, it was linguistically very inventive and original. It was as different from a conventional novel as blank verse is from rhyming couplets. I haven't read anything quite like this before, and I think not everyone would like it as many people prefer their fiction more "straight". Not everything came off perfectly, for instance Astrid's sassy yet vulnerable "voice" was better realised than her mother's self-interviewing (which was still interesting, she never asked herself any awkward questions), but I really applaud the attempt and I thought Smith was very witty, and sometimes really funny, such as when Michael's thoughts were expressed entirely in sonnets. I thought the title itself "The Accidental" was ironic, as I don't think there was any accidental language here, Smith must have
really worked on it. I thought her grasp of language was brilliant and is sparkled. Actually, I thought the structure of the book was witty also. It had Beginning, Middle and End but those chapter
headings must have been a literary thumbed nose at a more conventional novel. Secondly, it posed more questions than it answered. I like it when a book leaves you with food for thought.

This was an archetypally middle class family, couldn't be anything else with those names. They lived in Islington, parents both in trendy jobs, well-heeled (could afford to give Astrid a thousand
pound camera) intelligent kids bright (Smart), doing well at school . . . Yet underneath the bright exterior was a darker layer of bullying and infidelity and falsehood and unhappiness. I suppose
this is a bit of a cliche? Enter Amber, the answer to all their prayers (which is quite amusing considering how long she spent in church). Wasn't there a film once about an angel that arrived in a
village and changed everybody's life? Amber could have been a collective hallucination, but I think she was real enough and though it was a bit implausible that she would be able to inveigle her way
into the family the way she did (are the middle class still that polite?) it's not impossible. Amber was some sort of confidence trickster, or conjuror. What I think she did was make everyone look
at things differently, change their perceptions about themselves. I thought the episode where she was getting Astrid to video video cameras videoing them was great. They all loved Amber, though I
thought she was a nasty piece of work, but she was capable of humour ("I just found your son in the bathroom trying to hang himself" ha ha ha) and was probably taking the piss out of these people as well as the furniture out of their home. I didn't wonder all that much about Amber. I thought that grumpy cleaner with the vacuum cleaner was probably in cahoots, but I couldn't be bothered to think about it as it didn't really matter.

There were some moments that I thought were really touching, particularly the scenes between Magnus and Astrid, when he wanted her to act first as his accuser ("wankstain" ! New one on me), then as
his confessor. I also loved the bit where Astrid found ways to defy her mother's order not to mention Amber. Astrid was by far the best realised character. Magnus was interesting but less convincing. Eve and Michael were more sketchy. Frankly, I didn't understand the Eve bit at the end. Was it something to do with her father? Anyone care to explain? That bit was either more opaque, or I must be more stupid, than Ali Smith assumed.

I had fun with some of the references. Unlike Eve, I did remember the name of the group that did Concrete and Clay (Unit 4+2), though I had to Google Love Actually as I have never seen it. I thought all the cinema stuff underlined my idea that the book was partly about perception. The different voices of the family reflected how they saw things differently, many of Amber's influences were about perception or self-perception ("you are a fake") and some of the locales were a bit like film sets - the SUBSTANDARD cottage, the church, the empty home. I'm not ENTIRELY sure what particular fakery Eve was guilty of, but I thought when Amber kissed her on the mouth, she got her marching orders because Eve liked it, not because she didn't.

This was not a perfect book, but I enjoyed it, and I think Ali Smith is a writer to watch. I heard her on the radio a couple of days after I chose the book and she seemed a very pragmatic person, I
remember her being asked why she had written a novel instead of more short stories and she said that the advance for short stories was a lot less than the advance for a novel. So I was rather surprised
because the book was more fabulous (I mean like a fable, not like the Fab Four) and a bit mystical than I expected.

One thing that has puzzled me is the title "The Accidental". It sounds like it ought to mean something more and conjure up connotations. Like when you say genie, you have connotations of
lamps and wishes. Yet I could not find anything to support this. Anyone know?
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Nov 04, 2012 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Accidental doesn’t feature Vivian Leigh. Or Scarlett O’Hara. But it nevertheless reminded me of selfishness, of women who don’t know what they want until they can’t have it, and of the impact of single interactions.

The novel switches narrative point of view in each chapter, rotating through the cast of five family members in each of the three parts. Each point of view fully realizes its protagonist, but none perhaps as fully as in the chapters narrated by the son, Magnus. The family members...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Rajan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Entry into Michael Smart

There is a void in Michael Smart's heart. His substandard existence is utterly lacking in any original or interesting experiences. Therefore, he wants to be "surprised" and "entered" by newness, extraordinariness, excellence and wit. He wants to be struck by lightning. He goes about seeking these qualities of life by pursuing all the university students whom he teaches and cheats with. As a professor of English lit, he is compelled to perceive the said void in the form of...more

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May 05, 2012 Jenny Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Though it has been sitting on my shelf for about 2 years, I have only just discovered this fantastic novel by Scottish writer Ali Smith, deserved winner of the Whitbread Award 2005. Kooky, clever and charasmatic, Smith's novel takes a kaelidoskopic look at the troubled Smart family on their summer holiday in Norfolk, England.

In each of the three sections, 'the beginning', 'the middle', 'the end', the author conveys these themes through the thoughts and feelings of each of the family members- 12...more Though it has been sitting on my shelf for about 2 years, I have only just discovered this fantastic novel by Scottish writer Ali Smith, deserved winner of the Whitbread Award 2005. Kooky, clever and charasmatic, Smith's novel takes a kaelidoskopic look at the troubled Smart family on their summer holiday in Norfolk, England.

In each of the three sections, 'the beginning', 'the middle', 'the end', the author conveys these themes through the thoughts and feelings of each of the family members- 12-year-old Asterid, 17-year-old Magnus, their mother Eve, and their stepfather Michael. They are all satisfied in their own frustrations and anguish until the arrival of Amber on their family holiday, a mysterious lady who turns the family upside down, and becomes a symbol of their longings and desires. Watching Amber slowly tangle herself further into the Smart family web, unravelling each of their crippling obsessions, is mesmerising. You constantly ask yourself, as Eve Smart also does, 'Who is she? Where has she come from?' As with the Smart family, this question comes later than you expect into your mind; her assertive presence in a weakening family seems to serve as justification enough...for a while.

Smith deserves extra credit for the distinction between each of the novel's 'voices' through radical novel-writing techniques; any novelist that is bold enough to include sonnets halfway through their book is amazing in my eyes! After reading this novel and James Frey's 'A Million Little Pieces', I'm becoming a huge fan of leaving out speech marks. I never thought I'd be such a modernist, but Smith, Frey, you've both changed my mind. The immediacy, the blur between thoughts and spoken words, all conveyed in the absence of a simple grammatical tool...inspiring. You truly feel as though you are accessing the deepest, darkest thoughts of the characters...well, most of them, anyway... The ominous ending to the book shocked me, yet in hindsight was distrubingly inevitable: perfect for a sequel.

So, an amazing book. Smith's writing sizzles and breaks barriers, her characters jump, almost desperately, off the page. I cannot wait to dive into another book by Smith, and not just because of her brilliant surname (a-ha, a-ha). Discovering new authors makes me even more excited to get a Kindle (that's right, I'm slowly getting converted people...I never thought I'd see the day!). Right now, I'm giving Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie another shot; I wasn't a fan before and stopped a few chapters in, but I'm hoping that my trip to India may help me to view the book in a different light...(less)

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Mar 02, 2012 Ian Mapp rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Picked at random from Kiddy library on the geat book hunt, mainly because it had won book of the year on a large number of 2005 newspaper lists.

If i had remembered that I had read Ali Smith in Hotel World. it would have no doubt have been quickly returned to the shelf.

This is a very challenging book, that you need to concentrate on and work at. It has some rewards but to put it bluntly, is up its own arse and forgets to have a real story.

A middle class family are holidaying for the summer in nor...more

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Dec 28, 2011 Rowena Newman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I saw this book on a lot of readers' "worst books ever" lists on the Guardian Books site which put me off reading it for a year. Most of the listed books were bestsellers, which should've hinted something- the more hype there is around a book, the more a lot of people hate it if they didn't love it. Bestsellers are marmite. But when I have a little marmite with butter on some toast I think "mmm pretty nice, definitely wanna finish this morsel but certainly not gonna crave another straight away"...more

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Jun 21, 2011 Carol rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction

Ali Smith has a lot of dazzling literary tricks and techniques at her disposal, and she uses them to great effect, yet without neglecting to write an engrossing story with really interesting characters. The narrative concerns the Smarts: mother Eve, son Magnus, daughter Astrid, and step-father Michael. While they are on holiday in a rented house in Norfolk, a mysterious woman named Amber turns up at their house and worms her way into their lives. Amber seduces and manipulates the Smarts, individ...more

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Jun 09, 2011 Jeruen Dery rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let me start by saying that somehow, I get the feeling that British fiction has some sort of common denominator. Note that I have no expertise in literary theory, so I am not making any claims here. It was just something that I noticed, after reading books by Irvine Welsh, such as The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs, and by Will Self, such as Being Dead.

Anyway, this book is rather different in writing style. Sentences seem to flow to each other, and the narratives are centered on a family, t...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I like the language of this book. So original, refreshing and innovative. Unlike other writers who experiments with how they write, which often makes their work unintelligible (Oh, Gaddis, how could you?!), here you marvel at Ali Smith's love for words and her story which you'll have no difficulty following.

Probably the newest book I've read so far in the 1001 Books list, this was published in 2006 and mentions Beyonce and David Beckham somewhere. The female 13-year old protagonist, Astrid Smart...more

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Sep 05, 2010 Erin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adultfiction

Told from multuple perspectives, The Accidental is the story of a British family that seems normal and happy on the surface, but something much more fragile lurks beneath this facade.

Astrid, the youngest member of the family at twelve years old, begins the story while the family is on vacation. Angsty and often irritated, Astrid's one hobby is the video camera her parents have purchased for her. Stepfather Michael, an English professor, makes his way around his university, sleeping with his fema...more

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Jul 28, 2010 Al Gellene rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Smart family is taking their summer holiday in Norfolk. Eve, the mother, is the author of a moderately popular series of rather quaint books about the hypothetical lives of people who suffered tragic deaths, continuing their life stories as if they had lived. Michael is a literature professor at a mid level English University. His specialty is seducing his students, one in particular every year. Eve has two children by another marriage. Astrid, a precocious 12 year old, spends most of her ti...more The Smart family is taking their summer holiday in Norfolk. Eve, the mother, is the author of a moderately popular series of rather quaint books about the hypothetical lives of people who suffered tragic deaths, continuing their life stories as if they had lived. Michael is a literature professor at a mid level English University. His specialty is seducing his students, one in particular every year. Eve has two children by another marriage. Astrid, a precocious 12 year old, spends most of her time compulsively videotaping the world around her, sunrises, roadkill, trying to make sense of the world around her. Magnus is seventeen. He spends most of his time in his room trying to deal with his guilt over a cruel prank that he and two of his schoolmates played on an unpopular girl at his school who committed suicide as a result.
Into this mix comes Amber. The attractive, thirtyish, mysterious and sometimes petulant young woman, appears one day in her ancient Volvo, barefoot, and insinuates herself into their household. Eve thinks that she is one of Michael’s student conquests come to extend a school year romance. Michael believes that she is one of Eve’s friends. What she is is a bizarre, modern, Mary Poppins, absent the cheeriness, dropped into their lives. Everyone has their reason for wanting Amber to stay. But whether her intents and influences are benign or malicious is hard to tell.
Amber provokes Eve, challenging her self satisfied existence. She contemptuously spurns Michael’s advances. For Astrid, she presents a new way of looking at the world. And for Magnus, she provides redemption of a sort, bringing him out of his morbid depression.
The novel follows each member of the family, in sequential chapters, through the beginning, middle and end of their involvement with Amber. Like a force of nature, she overpowers their sedate existence. Amber is the color of warning, a symbol of caution and it is also a semiprecious stone, translucent, smoky, with Neolithic origin. Amber presents both of these qualities as she seemingly toys with the character’s lives. At the end, no one is the same. Where she has come from and where she has gone, no one knows.
The story is fraught with tension and Ms. Smith does a good job of giving her characters life and personality. The book was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. The ending is shocking, but sublime in its resolution of the story’s conflicts. A very good read.
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Jul 26, 2009 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read reviews, I listen to others talk about books, I seek out books that others rave about, and nevertheless, many books disappoint.

The Accidental did not disappoint.

And how did I run across it? Well, (forgive me this) it was quite accidental. As many good things are.

The Accidental has everything I dream of finding in a good book. It's smarter than me (the most important quality I look for in a good book or a good friend). It has intriguing characters. It has a plot that both confirms and sur...more

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Jun 20, 2009 Bart Mesuere rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english, joyce

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Het verhaal beschrijft de zomervakantie van de familie Smart die zich hoofdzakelijk in hun zomerverblijf in Norfolk afspeelt. Elk van de vier gezinsleden leeft een beetje in zijn eigen wereldje. Eve, de moeder, is de auteur van een reeks boeken over personen die gestorven zijn tijdens de tweede wereldoorlog. Ze kampt met een writer’s block en sluit zich elke dag op in het tuinhuis om te schrijven. Michael, de stiefvader, doceert literatuur aan een universiteit en schrikt er niet voor terug om op...more Het verhaal beschrijft de zomervakantie van de familie Smart die zich hoofdzakelijk in hun zomerverblijf in Norfolk afspeelt. Elk van de vier gezinsleden leeft een beetje in zijn eigen wereldje. Eve, de moeder, is de auteur van een reeks boeken over personen die gestorven zijn tijdens de tweede wereldoorlog. Ze kampt met een writer’s block en sluit zich elke dag op in het tuinhuis om te schrijven. Michael, de stiefvader, doceert literatuur aan een universiteit en schrikt er niet voor terug om op oneerbare voorstellen van studentes in te gaan. Magnus, de zoon uit Eve’s vorige huwelijk, is 17, denkt in wiskundige termen en heeft iets verschrikkelijk gedaan op school. Het laatste gezinslid is Astrid. Astrid is de twaalfjarige dochter van Eve. Ze wordt gepest op school en heeft een videocamera waarmee ze de wereld filmt. Op een dag staat plots Amber voor de deur van hun vakantiewoning. Michael denkt dat ze komt voor Eve’s nieuwe boek, Eve denkt dat het een studente van Michael is. Amber slaagt er in om van deze verwarring gebruik te maken en blijft enkele weken logeren. In die weken wordt iedereen verliefd op Amber, maar elk om een eigen reden.

Het boek bestaat uit 3 delen The Beginning, Middle en The end. Elk deel bevat een vijftal hoofdstukken die telkens het verhaal beschrijft vanuit het standpunt van een ander personage. Smith slaagt er in om op deze manier voor elk hoofdstuk een andere stijl te hanteren en het verhaal fris en boeiend te houden. Zo is het Michael hoofdstuk uit het middelste deel grotendeels in dichtvorm geschreven. De sterkste hoofdstukken zijn deze vanuit het standpunt van Astrid. Haar karakter is diep uitgewerkt en de gedachtekronkels werden volledig neergeschreven. Je krijgt dus echt het gevoel dat je in het hoofd van het twaalfjarige meisje zit en dat je de wereld door haar ogen ervaart. In het personage van Astrid is ook de grootste evolutie merkbaar, zo gebruikt ze in het begin van het boek tot vervelends toe het woord substandard, op het einde is dit preternaturally. Deze sterkte is meteen ook het grootste nadeel van het boek; je zou willen dat het volledige boek vanuit Astrid’s standpunt geschreven is. Een ander minpunt vond ik het ietwat teleurstellende einde maar de frisse schrijfstijl maakt veel goed. (less)

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May 25, 2009 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For the first 2/3 of this book, I was set to rate it two stars, despite being the winner of the Whitbread Award and a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, but the final third raised my rating to three stars. At its most basic, the story revolves around a young woman, Amber, who arrives unexpectedly at a family's summer cottage in rural England, is taken in by the family, manipulates each membr of the unhappy Smart family, wreaks havoc in their interrelationships, and the disappears just as abruptl...more

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Apr 08, 2010 Carys rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a former musician – I use the word ‘former’ advisedly, every time I get near a piano nowadays, four pairs of hands are at the ready to “help” with the notes – the word ‘accidental’ conjures musical connotations. An accidental involves the introduction of a sharp, or a flat, or a natural note, which essentially breaks the rules of the key signature; it results in a note that does not belong to the scale of the piece. This is how I picture Amber, Ali Smith’s mysterious visitor who turns the liv...more As a former musician – I use the word ‘former’ advisedly, every time I get near a piano nowadays, four pairs of hands are at the ready to “help” with the notes – the word ‘accidental’ conjures musical connotations. An accidental involves the introduction of a sharp, or a flat, or a natural note, which essentially breaks the rules of the key signature; it results in a note that does not belong to the scale of the piece. This is how I picture Amber, Ali Smith’s mysterious visitor who turns the lives of a family on holiday in Norfolk upside down. Amber does not belong and she alters the whole scale of the family.
Amber’s arrival at the family’s holiday home requires a slight suspension of disbelief – I can’t imagine living an existence so fractured that I wouldn’t think to check with Neil if there was a visitor coming - however, I was more than happy to suspend my disbelief, in fact I would have expelled it entirely just to continue reading Smith’s fabulous prose. The ultimate consequences of Amber’s visit also raise some doubts regarding practicalities and feasibility, however the symbolism of Amber’s act (can’t do spoilers, so this is very vague) is striking and, it turns out, just what the family needs.
The novel is told in the third person, but with masterful use of free indirect discourse. Smith moves from 12 year old Astrid, to 17 year old Magnus, to Eve the mother and to Michael, step-father, serial adulterer and university lecturer. Each voice is so distinct and well crafted that Smith doesn’t have to announce who is speaking as the chapters change: you know immediately. Michael was by far my favourite character. He was pompous, pretentious and self-centred. Part of the enjoyment of the novel was waiting for him to get caught with his trousers down (metaphorically, as it happened). His poetry was delightfully dramatic and initially atrocious, although it improved as his character became more sympathetic and by the end of the novel I felt some (small) degree of empathy for him.
The ending of the book took me rather by surprise. Yet as I mulled it over in my head, I realised that there was really no other possible ending. While the ending is essentially open, or at least the beginning of something new, the characters are not unchanged. Each of the family members learns something from the enigmatic Amber. Eve in particular learns more than we might initially think, and the ending is hopeful, if not resolved, which is exactly how I like my endings to be. (less)

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Jul 12, 2011 MJ Nicholls rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, hoots-mon, worshipped, distaff

A flat-out triumph of structure, style, shifting narrative voices, rhythm and language. A pitch-perfect technical masterpiece. Split into three components—the beginning, the middle and the end—the story moves between four perspectives: daughter, son, father, mother. Each section describes various events around a holiday trip to Norwich and the arrival of Amber, a charismatic drifter who changes her behaviour to accommodate each person.

A very tight, free indirect style* is deployed to bring the t...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Jim Elkins rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english

Pitch perfect evocations of the inner monologues of four characters, as many reviewers have noted. (For example, www.reviewsofbooks.com/accidental.) All that is tremendously enjoyable, especially moments when the ventriloquism becomes suddenly so strong that the reader comes to an awareness of their own previous awareness of the ways the character had been evoked. For example: one of the characters, Astrid, is a twelve-year-old girl; she uses the expression 'id est' and 'i.e.' way too much, and...more Pitch perfect evocations of the inner monologues of four characters, as many reviewers have noted. (For example, www.reviewsofbooks.com/accidental.) All that is tremendously enjoyable, especially moments when the ventriloquism becomes suddenly so strong that the reader comes to an awareness of their own previous awareness of the ways the character had been evoked. For example: one of the characters, Astrid, is a twelve-year-old girl; she uses the expression 'id est' and 'i.e.' way too much, and slightly inaccurately. Then, all of a sudden, we hear her rehearsing the 'meaning' of 'id est' as part of her inner monologue, and it turns out she not only doesn't understand it (as we suspected), but she doesn't understand that her explanation isn't an definition (she just says 'i.e.' comes from 'id est'). The realization that the author knows her character does not know she does not understand the idea of a definition, and that that misunderstanding is what produces the character's solecisms, is itself a higher-order misunderstanding than we might have thought. (We would have expected an inaccurate definition, something like 'id est means 'that'.') So we think back on our own previous sense of the character's awareness of herself, and we realize it wasn't as prescient as the author's.[return][return]Okay, that's a bit abstract: but it is what happens as I read some passages, and it's what gives them their uncanny verisimilitude.[return][return]On another level I was less persuaded by the book. Reviewers tend to always note that the central character, Amber, is never clearly defined, and that is certainly right and also intentional. But the manner of her ill-definition is actually quite clear--sometimes too clear for me. Amber is (a) a typical figure of a person with intense unaccountable insight, whose function is to perceive, empathize, and heal, and (b) a typical figure of a person who is unaccountably good as sizing people up, and taking advantage of them -- to rob them either physically or emotionally. The difficulty I had with this is that these two are both, by themselves, familiar, and their juxtaposition doesn't produce any special meaning.(less)

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Apr 23, 2012 Laurel-Rain rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From the very first page of "The Accidental," the reader is drawn into a very unique and curious story. Exploring families and the accidental moments that take them into situations they would never have chosen, this tale of what happens to one family while on holiday in Norfolk had me guessing, wondering, and finally accepting that sometimes there are no answers. Just as there may be alternate explanations, journeys, and selves that characterize the world described in these pages.

First we see ev...more

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