The Accidental by Ali Smith
#21 in my book challenge for the year was highly hyped The Accidental by Ali Smith. The prose struck me immediately as more than usually challenging, though not in an obvious, arduous way. Smith worked some subtle hocus pocus behind the scenes. The book shifts among five points of view, four of which are told in third person, only one of which is in first person. Not only does Smith pull off five distinct voices, but also five distinct styles. I was indifferent to the book at first, suspecting it of being clever rather than good. It grew to a strong finish, and further thought on it has made me appreciate it more.
One thing that bothered me, though, was that the text of the book wasn’t justified. I wonder if this was done deliberately to unsettle, because it certainly did so to me. I never knew how comforting typesetting was until I experienced its absence in this book.
May 18th, 2006 at 5:25 am
I only liked it half-n-half. didn’t like the 1st person “amber” bits at all.
May 19th, 2006 at 9:12 am
oh and p.s. i think the nonjustification is a british thing, i’ve been buy from amazon UK and i think they tend to be non…
May 24th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
I checked all my english editions (harry potter, bridget jones, kate atkinson, even lucky by sebold) and they were all justified.
I dont’ think we were meant to “like” amber, though I did like how she provoked each of the family members to change. They were all much better when they had a little bit of Amber’s ‘tude.