[Fiction 1987]
I’ve become a great admirer of Jonathan Coe since coming across The House of Sleep a few years ago and have sought out his work ever since, but this is the first time I have come across The Accidental Woman, Coe’s debut novel.
It is the story of Maria, a woman whose life seems to be – from her birth onwards – a series of accidents; a life that happens to Maria, rather than by her design or plan.
Maria herself seems often indifferent to what life throws at her, withdrawing from it whenever possible, often in the face of other people’s attempts to get involved with her, for example Ronny’s constant attempts to get Maria to marry him.
The story itself is a rather mundane tale of a rather mundane and average life. What lifts the novel out of this though is the narrative style using a very intrusive authorial style. Towards the end of the novel, by way of example, we have this:
Let’s be honest. I begin to weary of Maria and her story. What little fun there ever was in her; and in it, seems to have quite gone away, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that she desires nothing more than to have it brought to an end, rapid and painless. Let us move on….
However, what is the greatest strength of this book – this narrative style – which takes the mediocrity of the life it tells and twists it into new – and often very funny – contortions of the typical narrative structure, can also at times be its greatest weakness through the use of too much distance and diffidence.
All in all though, this rather too short novel is still a very good read and is highly recommended as are all Coe’s novels.
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