'The Accidental' by Ali Smith
A few months ago, I cannot be sure how many exactly, the past few seem to have blurred into one big long bunting-filled mega-month, I had the pleasure of reading Ali Smith’s Girl Meets Boy, a modern-day retelling of a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and rather a confusingly titled one at that, mainly because it involves a lesbian love story, i.e., no boys. No boys whatsoever. And although the story told in Girl Meets Boy had little real impact on me as a reader or as a person in general, the way in which the story was told most certainly did. In less elliptical terms, Ali Smith’s unique way with words made a huge impression on me, and I knew that there was a great deal more of it to be discovered as Smith has built up an impressive body of work over the last decade or so. So, however many months later, here I am ready to discuss - or indeed gush about - The Accidental.
Published in 2005 to an almost unanimous wall of praise, The Accidental is Ali Smith’s third full-length novel and sixth book overall. It was shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize and went on to win both the 2005 Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006. Furthermore, the novel was chosen as book of the year by an intimidating array of writers and journalists, Alain de Botton and Boyd Tonkin among them. Various accolades exhausted, The Accidental is the tale of a bored, middle-class family whose disparate lives are shaken up by the arrival of a mysterious stranger, Amber, at their Norfolk holiday home. Outspoken and unshaven, Amber turns up out of the blue on the pretense of her car having broken down nearby and immediately sets about trying the disjointed Smart family. Put simply, she is the cat to their pigeons. She takes twelve-year-old Astrid under her wing, takes teenage Magnus in her mouth (I kid you not, she really does, and in a church no less!) and also proceeds to increase the already obvious tension between their mother, Eve, and their stepfather Michael.
Now pardon my coarseness, but I really fucking loved this book. As in Girl Meets Boy, Smith refers to Greek mythology and other folklore throughout The Accidental, calling upon these characters and circumstances - Icarus seems to be a favourite - to add greater colour and depth to those she has created herself. And yet, here is something that I simply cannot wrap my feeble little head around - how can a novel which refers so heavily to the past be so utterly and incontrovertibly of its time? Just how does Ali Smith do it? The novel is set in 2003 and touches on a range of contemporaneous issues: the war in Iraq, cyber-bullying and the dark side of Photoshop and, last but not least, Love Actually. Oh yes, although the title is never mentioned outright, Smith’s references to the star-studded festive film are about as subtle as a knife and every bit as cutting.
Trying to explain away The Accidental feels a little like an exercise in futility, however, I suppose because it was such a joy to read that trying to replicate it here on my humble wee blog will only fall short of imploring, no, urging you to acquire a copy and find out for yourself just how special it really is. The best my little brain can come up with right now is to compare The Accidental to some kind of incendiary, something that burns, blazes and fizzes away until the very last and leaves traces of itself behind long after its supposed end. I enjoyed The Accidental so much that I am even considering writing a letter to Ms Smith describing how I delighted in its every last stinking page, something I have never done before. Stay tuned. Oh, and the next time you find yourself in or near a bookshop, be sure to pick up The Accidental. You won’t regret it.
This piece was originally published on alisonlaurabell.tumblr.com in August 2012.