And so it goes. Amber befriends young Astrid, whose voice is captured most distinctly out of all the family members. She is a double whammy for Magnus, whom she saves from a dangling noose in the kitchen and introduces to the pleasures of the flesh in an abandoned church. The good doctor Flint is equally enamored with her but ends up seeing his own vapid insignificance reflected in her vibrant spirit. And finally she embraces Eve, jump starting her imagination in a myriad number of ways.
Perhaps Amber shows them what they need to see both in themselves and in others. Perhaps she was never really there at all, this girl who admits to being born in a cinema and in the end is so diaphanous that she might just be a trick of the light, recalling the ghost of Smith's previous book, Hotel World. Smith has stitched together an arithmetic in which all these events, both odd and pedestrian, add up to a complex equation encompassing family, moral compasses, and the definition of self. The Accidental is dark stuff, yes, and takes a elaborate path to an ending that may not be satisfying to all readers but it's certainly an mesmerizing ride.
Perhaps Amber shows them what they need to see both in themselves and in others. Perhaps she was never really there at all, this girl who admits to being born in a cinema and in the end is so diaphanous that she might just be a trick of the light, recalling the ghost of Smith's previous book, Hotel World. Smith has stitched together an arithmetic in which all these events, both odd and pedestrian, add up to a complex equation encompassing family, moral compasses, and the definition of self. The Accidental is dark stuff, yes, and takes a elaborate path to an ending that may not be satisfying to all readers but it's certainly an mesmerizing ride.
