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  • Reading The Accidental

  • Ali Smith's The Accidental is an engaging read that follows two paths. One is the path of Amber, a young woman who was conceived in a classic movie theater, and the other is the family whose lives she enters. She arrives unannounced and immediately has an impact. Michael, the husband/stepfather is a ... Continue

    Ali Smith's The Accidental is an engaging read that follows two paths. One is the path of Amber, a young woman who was conceived in a classic movie theater, and the other is the family whose lives she enters. She arrives unannounced and immediately has an impact. Michael, the husband/stepfather is a college professor with an appetite for his students. He immediately sets his sights on Amber, who rebuffs him at every turn. Eve, the wife/mother, believes that Amber is in fact one of her husband's student (Michael think that Amber is a researcher who has arrived to interview Eve about a series of books she has written). For whatever reason, she appreciates the easy peace that Amber brings to the family, but resents her inwardly at the same time. Magnus, the teenaged boy, is pleasantly obsessed with Amber, who helps him through suicidal feelings and a bit of coming-of-age. And Astrid, a younger girl who turns her nose up at most everything, becomes more open and soft in the older woman's presence. The book does a fine job of exploring the ways that Amber changes all four family members, and also eventually moves in a circular direction to begin the cycle anew (the three sections of the book are split into beginning, middle and end, though the end feels as much like a beginning as the book's opening pages do).

    

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Shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize!

Read by an ensemble cast

A chance encounter forever alters a family's understanding of itself. An exhilaratingly inventive, thought-provoking novel from the author of Hotel World. 

Barefoot, thirtysomething Amber shows up at the door of a Norfolk cottage that the Smarts are renting for the summer. Amber doesn't know them, but she talks her way in, telling lies, and stays for dinner. Eve, an author, thinks Amber is a student her husband is sleeping with. Michael, an English professor, knows only that her car broke down. Daughter Astrid, age 12, thinks she's her mother's friend. Son Magnus, 17, thinks she's an angel. 

Gradually, Amber insinuates herself into the family. Dazzled by her seeming exoticism, the Smarts begin to examine the accidents of their lives under the searing lens of Amber's perceptions. When Eve finally banishes her from the cottage, Amber disappears from their sight, but not—as they find when they return home to London—from their profoundly altered lives. 

Fearlessly intelligent, disarmingly playful, The Accidental is a Joycean tour-de-force of literary improvisation that explores the nature of truth, the role of chance, and the transformative power of storytelling. 

Unabridged; 9 hours on 8 CDs

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