The Accidental

The Accidental

File:The Accidental, by Ali Smith.jpg Book cover, paperback edition.
Author	Ali Smith
Language	English
Publisher	Random House, Inc.
Publication date	April 10, 2007
Media type	Novel
Pages	306
ISBN	ISBN 1400032180, ISBN 9781400032181
OCLC	123199775
Preceded by	Hotel World
Followed by	Girl Meets Boy

The Accidental is a 2007 fiction novel by Scottish author Ali Smith. The novel follows a middle-class, English family who, after hiring a summer house in a small village in Norfolk are visited by a guest, Amber, who significantly changes the lives and thoughts of the family members. After eventually being thrown out of the residence for teaching the youngest child, Astrid to challenge authority, both the adult and child family members begin to realise how she has changed their lives significantly.

The novel was subject to mostly positive from critics, with few negtive comments. Jennifer Reese of American magazine Entertainment Weekly praised the book, writing that "while The Accidental does not add up to much more than a clever stunt, Smith pulls it off with terrific pizzazz." The novel was shortlisted for The Orange Prize, The Man Booker Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize and won the Whitbread Award.

About the author

Ali Smith is a Scottish author. Smith was born in Inverness in 1962, and later became a lecturer at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, but she later retired after contracting chronic fatigue syndrome to focus more on authoring books. Smith's first book, Free Love and Other Stories was published in 1995 and praised by critics, and was awarded the Saltire First Book of the Year award.

Plot

The novel is set in three stages, "The Beginning," "Middle" and "The End." A regular, middle-class family consisting of Eve Smart, a writer, and her two children Astrid, a twelve year old, and Magnus, a seventeen year and Eve's second husband, Michael is the subject of the novel, as it follows intensely through the thoughts and feelings of the characters. The family decide to rent a summer cottage in Norfolk, England. Shortly after their arrival, a woman named Amber appears at the door; Michael believes her to be a wife of his wife, but she believes him to be a student of her son, Magnus. Astrid, the youngest female of the family, feels bored in life and begins video-taping some aspects of her life for her enjoyment. The novel, as with the other characters, follows the thoughts of Astrid and her wonders throughout life.

Magnus, a disturbed teenager takes an instant liking to Amber, who eventually succeeds in seducing him. Magnus is disturbed by earlier events of his life, when he took part in school prank which led to the suicide of one of his peers, although his parents seem blind to his despair over the incident. The novel moves on to follow Eve, a writer of a series of "autobiotruefictinterviews" books which begin with the profile of a real person and her thoughts behind her books. Through her bonding with the family, Amber begins to slowly destroy the family through her beliefs, and showing them the wrong things in life, such as teaching Astrid to challenge authority. Upon realising Amber is a bad influence on the family, she throws her out. Believing the ordeal to have ended, Eve begins to give further thought to her writing after speaking with potential storylines for future books. It is later revealed that Amber is really named Alhambra, after the theater she was conceived in. After her leaving, Amber has significantly influenced the thoughts and believes of the family, continuing to have an effect on them.

Style

Critics have noted the ways in which this is a postmodern novel that "raises questions about the nature of representation". Richard Bradford, for instance, plays particular attention to Smith's use of language and the disparate discourses voiced by distinct characters. Eventually, as he points out, "the relatively secure borders between each character's third-person space begin to break down with voices echoing in and out of each other". And as a challenge to the realism of traditional Scottish fiction, "at one point the book itself appears in danger of fragmenting, as words and letters collapse out of regular typeface and collapse across the page".

Reception

The book was subject to positive reviews from critics. Gail Caldwell of The Boston Globe called it a "thoroughly charming and melodic novel," adding that "the novel is small and glistening, one confident little shooting star instead of a cumbersome light show." American magazine The Atlantic Monthly praised the book, writing that "[the book] is an enormous technical accomplishment that reminds us of the difference between linguistic hocus-pocus and real writing; more important, it casts a spell." Adam Begley of The New York Observer called it "A delightful book," adding that it is "a satire that's playful but not cuddly, tart but not bitter, thoughtful but not heavy." Publishers Weekly commented "so sure-handed are Smith's overlapping descriptions of the same events from different viewpoints that her simple, disquieting story lifts into brilliance." Michael Schaub of San Francisco Chronicle wrote "as dark as the novel can be, there are genuinely funny moments as well," adding that "the last sentence of the book manages to be enlightening, confusing and almost destructive in its simple power." The Times Literary Supplement wrote that the book is "original, restless, formally and morally challenging."

Jeff Turrentine of The Washington Post praised the book, writing "though The Accidental is not a conventionally funny novel, readers may find themselves laughing – in surprise and delight – at the way Smith takes a literary trope and riffs on it until she's turned it inside out, the way a great jazz musician might." Noel Murray of The A.V. Club praised the book, commenting that "though The Accidental is more spectacularly messy than brilliant, it has a strong perspective on what it means to be alive in the early '00s, and constantly tugged at by the disturbingly similar feelings of guilt and self-righteousness." In a positive review by The Guardian, Steven Poole notes that "The Accidental has an infectious sense of fun and invention. The story goes through some surprising reversals and arrives at a satisfying conclusion, which is also a beginning." Kirkus Reviews called the book "Dazzling wordplay and abundant imagination invigorate a tale of lives interrupted." The Christian Science Monitor wrote "the writing brims with wit, humor, and energy." In a mixed review by 'Bookslut,' Eoin Cunningham wrote "The Accidental ends up more an exercise in cleverness than a story. Equally, the reader’s enjoyment of The Accidental will be inextricably linked to their appetite for such an exercise. If you aren’t swept away by Smith’s undoubted way with words, and you rely on the bones of the story itself, you will be disappointed."