This review is provided by bookgroup.info.
The setting is Norfolk in the long hot summer of 2003. The Smart family are staying in a miserable cottage for the holidays while the war in Iraq rumbles in the background.
The story is told in turn from the point of view of the four family members; Astrid a bright, video camera wielding, twelve year old girl; Magnus her seventeen year old brother, traumatised by the suicide of a bullied classmate for which he feels partly responsible; Eve the children’s mother, a writer with writer’s block, and Michael their lecherous, lecturer step-father.
If it all sounds rather tediously familiar so far but don’t despair. Events take a turn when a mysterious blonde female stranger infiltrates their lives. But who is Amber? Eve supposes she’s one of Michael’s lovers. Michael supposes she’s come to interview Eve and the kids are just glad there’s someone else there to relieve the tedium. No-one challenges her appearance at the house and all four are seduced by her and ultimately forced to re-examine their lives.
This is just the story. The book’s tour de force is Ali Smith’s use of language. She is clever, funny and completely unpretentious. I particularly like the (totally believable) voice of twelve year old Astrid:
“They’re all asleep. Nobody knows she is awake. Nobody is any the wiser.
Any the Wiser sounds like a character from ancient history. Astrid in the year 1003BC (Before Celebrity) goes to the woods where Any the Wiser………” and so it goes on as we enter Astrid’s stream of consciousness.
This is the contemporary novel at its best - rich and satisfying.
The Lovereading view...
The engrossing tale of a middle-class family and the events that unfold when a stranger steps into their midst. Amber's arrival changes the family's lives dramatically as she quickly bonds with the Smarts, bewitching them all. Smith's writing is fantastic, capturing the voices of all the characters superbly, but especially that of the adolescent Astrid who steals the show. On the Orange Fiction Prize 2006 short list and utterly compelling.
14 year old Astrid is spending the summer with her family in a substandard holiday home in a substandard town in Norfolk, and she knows for sure nothing’s going to happen there all substandard summer. So she’s started filming the dawn breaking each morning on her Sony digital camera.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Recommendations: |
14 year old Astrid is spending the summer with her family in a substandard holiday home in a substandard town in Norfolk, and she knows for sure nothing’s going to happen there all substandard summer. So she’s started filming the dawn breaking each morning on her Sony digital camera. Magnus, Astrid’s older brother, has been pulled out of the upper-sixth early. He used to be form-captain, sickeningly excited about things like calculus, and how plants grow. Now he lies face down on the floor in his room like a beached whale. What happened? One month ago he and two friends took a picture of a lower-sixth girl’s head, fixed it onto another body, and sent it round everyone’s email, then she killed herself. Dr Michael Smart lectures in English Literature at a London university. Though spending the summer in Norfolk, he’s popping down to London, marking work, checking exam results etc, and secretly meeting his current special pupil, the alarmingly ambitious Philippa Knott.
The Accidental features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, eBooks of the Month, Book Club Recommendations, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
Paperback, Paperback (b Format), Hardback. £8.99, down from the £9.99 cover price. In Stock.
The Accidental was written by Ali Smith and published by Penguin Books Ltd
The Accidental has 305 pages
£8.99, reduced from £9.99. In Stock.
