The Accidental - Ali Smith

Accidentally published? (497 words)
by moo2moo - written on 09/02/10 (Very useful, 23 readings)
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Banville, Kiran Desai, Anne Enright, Aravind Adiga and Hilary Mantel they re not exactly household names. It was therefore with a sense of foreboding that I set about tackling Ali Smiths The Accidental which was shortlisted in 2005. Set in the rented Norfolk holiday home of the dysfunctional Smart family where Eve (mother of one) attempts to write her eighth best seller in the seclusion of a dilapidated garden shed whilst wondering if the stranger who has come to stay is yet another of her husbands floozies. Meanwhile Dr Michael Smart (Eves second husband) is wondering just how long the journalist who s come to interview his wife will be staying. The fact that this ...

Hotel World - Ali Smith

The many faces of grief (621 words)
by dee778 - written on 28/02/10 (Very useful, 86 readings)
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the plot: I would have liked a little more obvious connection between the characters - a clever plot twist to surprise me at the end. I have never enjoyed short stories and the thread running through this novel is too tenuous for me. Hotel World was a good read, but not a great read. Ali Smith is a Scottish writer, who writes for several broadsheets as well as producing novels. Hotel World was shortlisted for both the Orange and the Booker prize in 2001. It was published in 2001 by Penguin books. 236 pages, ISBN ...

Hotel World - Ali Smith

Like tears from a star... (443 words)
by pje - written on 24/09/01, updated on 24/09/01 (Very useful, 141 readings)
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is how it starts. with an irresistable first page that reminded me of the close rapport between two dooyooers. But no, the author is Ali Smith, it's not an Alki Murphy collaboration. It opens with the thoughts of a nineteen-year-old chambermaid Sara Wilby as she plummets - and after she has plummeted - four floors down to her death inside a dumb waiter at the Global Hotel where she works. Post-mortem fiction seems to be all the rage at the moment, doesn't it? We see the events of one night from five different viewpoints, one by one, like five interconnected short stories. Sarah: recalling her final memories as they slowly fade. Else: a homeless ...