Reading 1001 discussion

It wasn't until I had finished this book that I realised that I had read another of her books There but for the a couple of years ago. It had a similar premise: someone unknown to a family moves in and disrupts their lives. Its title is similarly quirky, an unfinished sentence. I really enjoy her writing style. This book too, has four different voices, no five, actually, if the commentary, presumably by the disrupter herself, is counted. The Accidental was written first, in 2005, describing a story set two years earlier. Many of the topical issues mentioned are shocking to remember, such as the atrocities at Abu Ghraib. I love the way that Smith alludes to these events without actually naming them. She does the same with movies and popular songs, so you have to have some background in popular culture to understand the references. And they are deliciously described. A main premise of the novel is the question, what is truth? How topical can one get! Another is issues which we would now call the #MeToo movement. In Now But For The the main theme is celebrity. So Smith is right on the button about what things are of interest to the reader today. It seems all of her books have had prestigious recognition. I look forward to reading more.

Read 2016
A story of broken people; Eve the mother who is having writer's block, Michael her second husband who is sleeping with his students, Magnus who is suffering from guilt for his part in teasing. Amber walks into the home where the family is living on a working vacation (for the mother). No one questions her presence and she messes with all of their minds. The problem of poor communication allows this stranger to insert herself into their life. I didn't like the story much but was intrigued by the story idea. There was too much gutter talk in the dialogue which is probably stream of conscious. There is a lot of pornography reference and even too much pornography description which I think could have been omitted and still got the idea across.

This was a good, quick read for me and I gave it 3 stars. I had no real objections to it, but wasn’t extremely attached to it or fascinated by it either. However, I really did like the ambiguity of whether Amber represents a positive force in the family’s life or not in how they maybe need to be exposed for their trespasses/stripped of the artifice of their lives. I also liked the ending with Eve and how it seems to propagate the narrative forward. I wasn’t entirely sure about the recurring motif of Amber and the Alhambra/movie theatre and how that fit into the themes of the narrative though.

I loved There but for the, and I liked this book too, but not quite as much. Some of the symbolism and pop cultural references were lost on me, I think, and I had a hard time relating to the characters in this one. I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

BOTM 2024
I really enjoy reading Ali Smith and her throw bag of themes and ideas that reflect the times she writes in and we live in. As someone with a knowledge of movies, I found her references to the early Lumiere Brothers through 2004 films to be a delight. She often focuses on people that have been broken or who are simply naturally different from the standard population but in this novel, all the people other than Amber the visiting angel, demon, lost girl and thief are quite shaken by their own inability to move forward with their life. Astrid is attempting to understand adulthood without any clear model for that behavior. She is impatient and surly and quite mean most of the time but she is also full of energy and amazing ideas. Michael finds himself with two teen age children he did not father while being consumed with a sex life that will ultimately ruin him. Eve is a writer with writer's block and no clear idea why she should be writing at all but feels as if she has to fake it. Magnus is the truly sorry individual, who playfully acts out with others a boyhood prank that has repercussions which will haunt him for the rest of his life. Into this mess of a family, Amber enters as a life saver and teasing delight who may be only in it for her own personal gain. However, as we do not really learn where Amber comes from or where she goes, we are allowed to view Amber as an almost supernatural being, an accident of fate, a moment that all of life will pivot around.

I hate to say it but I didn’t really enjoy this and I don’t think I really understood it.

Amber is an unlikeable character who does unlikeable things to all the other characters but they still invite her in and appear to dote on her until finally Eve breaks free of the spell they all appear to have been under. To be fair to Amber all the other characters are to a greater or lesser degree unlikeable themselves but still…

In some ways Amber is a force for good the fact that she gets Magnus to accept what has happened and move on, she provides a different view of adulthood for Astrid but overwhelmingly for me she is destructive and I honestly can’t imagine any real family letting her stay for as long as she does.

The whole empty house thing confused me the family blame or praise Amber depending which member but was it her, was that her whole purpose in invading their lives? And why take literally everything?

I kinda liked the ending with Eve being mistaken for someone else and invited into another house has a certain kind of symmetry to it.

3 Stars – Read it for the manipulation and downfall/salvation of a family.

Agree with much of what Book has said above. I enjoyed parts of it, other parts bored me to tears (almost anything to do with Michael). Overall, I didn't really understand the point. I really liked the passages about cinema and movie theaters, but I couldn't tell you what they have to do with the rest of the story (yes, I know, Alhambra was conceived in a movie theater but other than that). A lot of the negative or mixed reviews of the book remark that it is a clever exercise that doesn't add up to much, and that pretty much nails it for me.

The Accidental by Ali Smith
3 stars
I am afraid I am team Book and Jane. I didn’t enjoy this book either. I have read one other book by this author There But For The and had the same reaction. I appreciate the quality of writing but I couldn’t connect with the story or characters. I have found the characters in both her books that I have read to be unlikable. I did listen to the audiobook which had multiple actors reading for each character which added to the experience. There is one more book by the author on the list, I won’t be rushing to read Winter.

I am also on team Book, Jane and Diane.

I was really looking forward to reading my first Ali Smith book but while I feel I might like other books by her, this one just felt like good writing and a good initial idea were poorly handled. This felt like a first draft.

I love the idea of Amber's arrival highlighting the lack of communication between the different members of the family and interactions with her slowly changing them. We know so little about Amber that we do not know how far her influence spreads. We assume she had something to do with stripping their Islington home but did she also persuade the families of the subjects of Eve's writings to sue and Michael's students/affair participants to report him? The book starts with the birth of Alhambra and ends with a rebirth of Eve as an (accidental?) copy of Amber.

3 stars.

A stranger called Amber turns up on the doorstep of the Smart family’s holiday home and disrupts their carefully arranged family relationships. Her presence forces them to confront their view of themselves and leads them to unexpected decisions and a new way forward.

Smith’s writing is clever and erudite, fizzing with puns and literary references - so many in fact that they begin to blur into one after a while - and the story is fast moving, occasionally funny and also very dark. The characters are all selfish and unlikeable, and Amber’s presence changes the course of their lives and challenges their view of the truth without offering anything very hopeful or beneficial for the present or the future.

This is very similar to the other Smith books I have read with recurring characters such as the precocious child, and not one I particularly warmed to, but it is undoubtedly intelligent and thoughtful and I appreciated the film references and the way the author plays with language.