I really, really wanted to love this book. None of my local libraries owned it, so I put in a request that the library where I work order it, which we did. I wonder if I am just about the only person who didn't love this book, however? Ali Smith won the Whitbread Prize for The Accidental, and it was nominated for the Booker Prize as well (her second Booker nomination by the way). Is it possible to say that I didn't enjoy reading this, but I am glad that I persevered and finished it?
If you are not familiar with the story, the Smart family has taken a (substandard) holiday home in Norfolk. Astrid, the twelve-year-old daughter has been bullied at school. She spends her days filming sunrises and roadkill with her digital camera. Seventeen-year-old Magnus unwittingly helped cause the suicide of a classmate through a practical joke he initiated. Eve, the mother, is a successful writer who spends her days in the shed laying on the floor as she has writer's block. And stepfather Michael is the stereotypical academic who seduces his students. Into their lives walks Amber--the "accidental". She manages to throw everyone for a loop and becomes the catalyst for change in their lives.
I think my dislike is less a matter of the writer not being able to write, than my own inability to enjoy what Smith was trying to do with this novel. It is quite well done. I just found myself being irritated by little details. I read in one review that Smith (this is the first book of hers that I have read) is actually a short story writer, where every word counts. And she does seem to really pay attention to words and sentence structure and manipulates the story with them. This was where I found myself getting annoyed-there was a lot of repetition that I could have done without. And precocious Astrid kept thinking and saying aloud "etc, i.e., and id est". Even her mother remarked that it was annoying, and I had to agree. In one review I read:
"The novel is preoccupied with language and story. Smith's writing is so dexterous and polished that The Accidental comes off, for better or worse, as something of a performance--perhaps a chamber piece for a small ensemble that keeps the audience, in this case the reader, at a decent remove despite the intimacy of the setting. There is a genuine fascination with all forms of language, down to clichés and conjunctions. A sharp riff on "and," to cite one example, has Magnus concluding that the word 'is a little bullet of oxygen'." New Leader, Nov/Dec2005, Vol. 88 Issue 6.
I appreciate what Smith was doing with the novel, especially after reading a variety of reviews, and I did actually enjoy the middle section of The Accidental. But I was quite happy to finish the novel and return it to the library to be honest. I am curious about her other work. Despite not really enjoying this read as much as I had hoped, I will have to check out her other books--perhaps I will find them more to my liking.