The Accidental Woman [Import] [Paperback]

Jonathan Coe (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 151 pages
• Publisher: Sceptre; New Ed edition (April 6, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340489294
• ISBN-13: 978-0340489291
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,419,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny and moving, August 26, 2001

By 

A.J. Joyce (here and there) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Accidental Woman (Hardcover)

A slight but charming novel of ideas, wise and tender, by turns unbearably sad, enviably clever and roar out loud funny, 'The Accidental Woman' is a series of vignettes from the almost tragic life of Maria, an intelligent and lovely young woman who has never been sure what she wanted and to whom as a consequence things just happen at random. This being the case, it isn't as exquisitely structured as his later work. The auctorial voice is playful, if compassionate, and scenes range from savagely farcical to gently satirical to a sort of heightened realism. Coe fans will enjoy it as long as you aren't expecting What A Carve Up or House of Sleep; anyone who hasn't read him should start with them.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dull!, August 12, 2003

By 

ca-bookshelf (Paris France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Accidental Woman (Hardcover)

This novel reads like a bad 10th grade composition! The awkward writing, a plot made up of unrelated circumstances, and a unsympathetic central character combine to make a very boring reading experience.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing. Coe has written much better., November 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Accidental Woman (Hardcover)

After reading the excellent "House of Sleep" and "What a Carve Up", this came as a big disappointment, although with a few mitigating good features. The basic problem of this book is that its central characters are uninteresting and the plot (such as it is) unabsorbing. The "short stories within a book" at its core are an interesting idea but somehow never quite work properly. At some points it threatens to really take off, with some good secondary characters and scenes (particularly between academics and lawyers)and there are some memorable flashes of humour, but overall it is very unsatisying