Product Description

Indifferent by choice, indecisive by nature, Maria ploughs her way through fifteen years of womanhood, unable to see what all the fuss is about. Will she ever be able to direct the course of her own life, or will it end as it began - accidentally? Jonathan Coe's first novel, which introduced a wonderful new talent to English fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #487041 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Customer Reviews

How painful it is to deal with suffering people
The accidental woman, by Jonathan Coe

A novel about suffering, possibly about a suffering woman. Or, rather, the suffering of the author in dealing with the Maria (or the Marias) of his life. Because this is all about it: dealing with an "accidental person", trying to establish an impossible relationship with someone who simply is out of reach. The writing is tormented, but it gets more and more easy-going while the story proceeds, reaching towards the end a sort of identification of the author with the main character of his story. What's amazing is that there is eventually no recipe for a good way to relate to the Marias of our lives, if not simply to recognise them and to accept their diversity, their unhappiness, their misery. Which also is our misery.

If you like this book you might want to read two other very good novels about suffering: "The farewell symphony" by Edmund White, and "The woman who walked into doors" by Roddy Doyle.

I don't get it.
I am a big fan of this author. Like another reviewer I relish his narrative style; something which is seen in this book but is far more effective and less affected in later books.
In a lot of Coe's books you find characters that are difficult to like. "What a carve-up" is full of some of the most odious characters in English literature since Dickens. And you laugh out loud at how truly awful they are.
The problem with the central character in this book is that there really is nothing to like or dislike about her. It is as if someone has written a book of the life of the most boring person you have ever met. You know the one.....the person you see in the street and pretend you are too busy to talk to....because they truly have nothing to say. Perhaps the author picked the most neutral subject matter available to show what a wonderfully clever writer he is; and he really is very good.
This was the author's first novel and the gratifying news is that he gets much, much better. Coe is at his best when he is not trying to be too clever because he is, first and foremost, a consumate tale teller.

It will stay with you
A quirky, delightful read. At first I found the style almost deliberately teasing and provocative, Jonathan Coe playing around with the reader quite mercilessly, but by the end of the book I was thoroughly enjoying the strange self-conscious narrative. A friend told me this is what they call post-modern. Good stuff whatever it is.