Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12776 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-06
• Released on: 2006-04-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

tedious
Oh dear, I loved the idea of this book, it promised a thought provoking, interesting read and it turned out to be the opposite. It tries to be clever with an immediate but bizarre narrative which doesn't allow the characters to flesh out. Their thoughts just spill out haphazardly across the page and frequently lead the reader nowhere. It's like a butterfly flitting from one thought to the next and although I'm well aware that many of us have minds that work just that way it proves tedious to read someone else's. If I could write down every thought I had during the day would anyone want to read it? If the answer is yes then you may enjoy this book but I suspect the vast majority would answer no and this majority should steer clear.

modernist nightmare for the reader
This book, set in the early years of the 21st century, is based on the plot of a mysterious stranger disturbing the already fragmented equilibrium of a family. Although evocatively written, it is fundamentally pointless. Neither interesting nor enjoyable, and I struggled to finish reading it, the apparent attraction seems to be the apparent conflict between reality and imagination, the collisions of personal realities and other modernist ghosts which I thought had disappeared in the '70s.

Oh, and returning to the early 21st century: why do Britain's current literary leading lights insist on banging on about the second Iraqi war, even when they have little of interest to say about it? Similarly, why do they ignore the stewing of the planet in industrially produced juices? Maybe it's all too real.

A very rewarding book - more truth with fewer facts
You do not have to be clever or well read to enjoy this book! But perhaps you do have to be perceptive. What a fantastic book. I found it got inside me and stayed in parts of my mind without my permission. A beautifully written work that has more resonance than the story would appear to offer. Ali Smith effortlessly conveys her characterisation through the eyes of her subjects and their thoughts and observations. Not a book for people who like stories to be made up of events or facts which are revealed sequentially. "The Accidental" is more complex and more perplexing. It comes at you like life. It is bewildering at first and more true than other books I have read. I found reading the book exciting and liberating - as if I had shared the experiences.