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Review
"Astonishing. . . . Vivid and affecting. . . . Wonderfully supple, jazzy." -"The New York Times"
"Persistently sparkling pages...of startling and clarifying emotional power. . . . It casts a spell." --"The Atlantic Monthly"
"Completely captivating. . . . Thoroughly charming and melodic. . . .Devilishly lovely." --"The Boston Globe"
"Beautifully executed. . . . A few pages [in] and you begin to remember how much fun it is to put yourself in the hands of a skilled, majestically confident writer. . . . Delightful."
--"The New York Observer"
"Brims with wit, humor, and energy." --"The Christian Science Monitor"
"Persistently sparkling pages...of startling and clarifying emotional power. . . . It casts a spell." --"The Atlantic Monthly"
"Completely captivating. . . . Thoroughly charming and melodic. . . .Devilishly lovely." --"The Boston Globe"
"Beautifully executed. . . . A few pages [in] and you begin to remember how much fun it is to put yourself in the hands of a skilled, majestically confident writer. . . . Delightful."
--"The New York Observer"
"Brims with wit, humor, and energy." --"The Christian Science Monitor"
Product Description
The Smart family's lacklustre holiday in Norwich is turned upside down when a beguiling stranger called Amber appears, bringing with her love, joy, pain and upheaval. The Smarts try to make sense of their bewildering emotions as Amber tramples over family boundaries and forces them to think about their world and themselves in an entirely new way. The Accidental is at once a mysterious web of secret identities and a ruthlessly honest look at the silent cracks that can develop unnoticed in relationships over time.
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First Sentence
My mother began me one evening in 1968 on a table in the café of the town's only cinema. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
My mother began me one evening in 1968 on a table in the café of the town's only cinema. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I don't write that many Amazon reviews but given some of the negative ones for this book, I had to. Personally, I thought the book was absolutely brilliant and, as others have said, the change in narrative tone depends on who's doing the narrating. As for Michael, he was a fantastic comic figure, especially in his middle section, the one written in verse. I take my hat off to Ali Smith for being able to move between prose and poerty in that way, but for anyone who doesn't like poetry, you can read it just as prose. It works that way, too.
The reason for four rather than five stars is the slightly disappointing ending. Although we don't really need to know who Amber really is, the three passages about her do suggest there are clues to her identity and it would have been nice to know what that identity was. And while I had no problem with Eve in the States, the suggestion that she might be going to retsart the whole cycle was a little silly: the point about Amber was that she was totally unique.
This is clearly one of those novels, though, that people either love or hate and to be honest I can't imagine haiting it. It's frequently called pretentious, too, which I didn't think it was at all (and I loathe McEwan et al for their pretension.) I hope to read a good deal more of her work.
The reason for four rather than five stars is the slightly disappointing ending. Although we don't really need to know who Amber really is, the three passages about her do suggest there are clues to her identity and it would have been nice to know what that identity was. And while I had no problem with Eve in the States, the suggestion that she might be going to retsart the whole cycle was a little silly: the point about Amber was that she was totally unique.
This is clearly one of those novels, though, that people either love or hate and to be honest I can't imagine haiting it. It's frequently called pretentious, too, which I didn't think it was at all (and I loathe McEwan et al for their pretension.) I hope to read a good deal more of her work.
33 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As the title of this review suggests, my feelings about this novel are complex and I don't think I can adequately answer the question I have posed myself. There are moments of pure genius within this text - pieces of narrative that literally sweep you up with their ingenuity. Smith certainly excels when utilising her own unique stream of consciousness style and this alone makes the book worth reading. I also found the structure satisfying, with the sense of full circle achieved at the end. What lets this text down is the occasional sense that it is just trying to be that little bit too clever, a little bit too self aware of its status as a story telling medium. Three stars may be a little harsh - three and a half more accurate. I would certainly recommend this to anyone who enjoys an author unafraid to play with the novel genre but prepare to feel a little disappointed. This feels like the work of an author on the way to greatness but not quite there yet.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The difficulty with this book is that is hard to get into. There is no comforting authorial voice to guide you and no clear linear narrative structure. Instead we hear the 4 voices of the Smart family in turn describing their particular relationship with Amber and her tumulutous and life-affirming effect on them.
The connection to Pasolini's 1968 film 'Theorem' is important and is provided by Terence Stamp (see the first chapter). His character in 'Theorem' comes into a bourgeios family and destroys them. Here the effect in the opposite. Each member of the dysfunctional Smart family lives in isolation, Magnus is on the verge of suicide unknown to his mother, step-father and sister, who are each self-absorbed, alienated from each other and miserable, even if they are not aware of it. Both parents are living unsatisfactory, mistaken lives with no real sense of what is going on within and around them.
Amber's effect is like light, clarity, insight and understanding. Each character is freed from their damaging and damaged past and finds new ways of living.
The connection to Pasolini's 1968 film 'Theorem' is important and is provided by Terence Stamp (see the first chapter). His character in 'Theorem' comes into a bourgeios family and destroys them. Here the effect in the opposite. Each member of the dysfunctional Smart family lives in isolation, Magnus is on the verge of suicide unknown to his mother, step-father and sister, who are each self-absorbed, alienated from each other and miserable, even if they are not aware of it. Both parents are living unsatisfactory, mistaken lives with no real sense of what is going on within and around them.
Amber's effect is like light, clarity, insight and understanding. Each character is freed from their damaging and damaged past and finds new ways of living.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
'could it sometimes take an outsider to reveal to a family that it was...
I enjoyed the first 200 pages or so. A mysterious stranger, Amber, turns up at the holiday home of a deeply troubled- albeit ostensibly successful- family. Read more
Published 20 days ago by sally tarbox
Haunting but Frustrating
This book is apparently inspired in part by a Pasolini film in which a young man arrives in a household and somehow seduces everyone, wreaking gentle havoc. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kate Hopkins
Whimsical and tedious
I usually enjoy this kind of book, but The Accidental failed to bring out any sympathy in me. The characters were poorly drawn and the plot constructed as if on a whim. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Alan
Caveat emptor - beware of professional reviewers !!!
I am always very wary (and weary) when considering reading a book or buying an album praised to the heavens by the cogniscenti. Read more
Published 8 months ago by SMc
Accidentally stumbling across entertainment
Ali Smith certainly doesn't need me to point out what seems to be happening,she has displayed a virtuoso level of walking a mile in someone elses moccasins when telling the story... Read more
Published 8 months ago by John Cutts
A burden to read
I found the book a burden to read, and feel the assertions on the blurb `joyous, brilliant... frequently hilarious...funny moving etc...' inaccurate. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Bear
Hmm.
Well the Guardian says it has 'an infectious sense of fun and invention', that it's 'a skilful exercise in free indirect style'. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Frootle
Less than extraordinary
The much-praised The Accidental sees the Smarts: Eve, a writer, her philandering husband Michael, an academic, and their two teenage children, Astrid and Magnus, make a strange... Read more
Published 10 months ago by reader 451
Pretentious Drivel
This is a group review by Burry Port Bookworms:
The consensus amongst our members was that the positive reports and glowing reviews on Amazon and on the book cover were... Read more
The consensus amongst our members was that the positive reports and glowing reviews on Amazon and on the book cover were... Read more
Published 15 months ago by M. Dunlop Ferraro
Best book I've read in a long time.
I loved this book, although I need to reread it to fully enjoy all the little references and devices the author uses to such effect. Read more
Published 15 months ago by C. Brown
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