i really wanted to like this!

I've read this before but couldn't remember the story. Still baffled on a second read, to be honest.

Oh my Godzilla, what a family.

Good lord what a book all of its own gravy. This is the third Ali Smith novel I've read after There but for the and How to Be Both, and whilst those two novels are definitely a step above The Accidental, this is still a work with much to love, especially the prose style, what a writer.

liked how smith captures the voice of children and how you could tell who the character you're following is from the writing style

Yhtaikaa peribrittiläinen perhedraama ja silti tunnusomainen Smithin kirja, jossa kutsumaton vieras muuntuu erään perheen elämien käännekohdaksi. Kieputtava, omaleimainen, tavallaan hidas ja viipyilevä ja silti kiehtovan koukuttava. Pidin, kuten kaikesta muustakin Smithin tuotannosta tähän asti.

The first of our book club books that felt like assigned reading for a literature degree. Like most of those novels, I appreciate having read something I wouldn't otherwise bother to finish. It's clever, even if it makes me feel stupider for not going with its tangents, glazing over paragraphs filled mostly with lists.

Maybe I would've had more joy with it if the characters were worth the time. Michael, boo-hoo. Amber, calm down. I can only think of it as reverse-classism, that this holiday homing family who wouldn't immediately toss out an invader were not my cup of tea. In the end I didn't care for the self-destructive patriarch, or how Eve becomes the next Amber. For whatever reason, it annoyed me they were even given the scope to choose those paths. It feels like the reaction I should've had to watching The Souvenir.

So I'm torn between being grateful for spending time with a novel that is a challenge on all fronts, and frustrated that I just don't get it.

didn't finish it. just was never able to get into it.