The accidental by ali smith5/9/2023 Not only are a couple of characters unsympathetic but the changes of viewpoint initially jar and for a long time the lack of justification in the text irritated me. (This does not illumine Amber’s behaviour overmuch.) The unravelling of the Smart family’s life under Amber’s influence is the meat of the book. Each section is preceded, and hence followed, by a framing narrative in the first person from Amber’s viewpoint. Thankfully, she – or Smith as the author – grows out of this by The End. Astrid’s narration is initially irritating as she has a habit of using ie (or even id est) in circumstances which do not warrant it. The novel is split into three sections, The Beginning, The Middle and The End in all of which each family member has a narrative strand. Reasonably successful writer Eve Smart, her philandering lecturer husband Michael and their family are renting a house in Norfolk when they are intruded upon by a female stranger called Amber, who proceeds to inveigle her way into their home, befriend Eve’s twelve year old daughter Astrid and seduce her teenage son Magnus.
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