Follow-Up to The Accidental

Last night I finally got around to finishing The Accidental. Aside from the fact that it was heavily inconclusive and that the last chapter was excessively disjointed from the remainder of the novel (except for the first chapter which matched the theme and substance of the last), I liked the book. I am certainly a fan of Smith's style. The twelve-year-old girl Astrid was certainly the most likable character. And despite how repulsive Amber was, she really was the center of the novel who provided the way for each individual character's personal crisis to come to the surface. In Magnus' case, she may have even helped him work through a crisis, in a certain sense. A few of the characters were ill-realized, namely Eve. Her midlife crisis was obvious from the outset, but she was depicted so free of moorings that it was impossible to judge the breadth of the crisis. Michael was painted as a weak individual, and this characteristic was essentially the strength of his character.