Book reviews: Tessa Hadley, Marty Ross and James Dashner
The underrated Hadley’s new novel, a queer take on Romeo and Juliet, and some familiar dystopian landscapes are this week’s selections
by Tessa Hadley (read by Antonia Beamish)
Whole Story (audiobook)
I once met Dan Franklin, near-legendary editor of Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Martin Amis. I asked who was the most underrated writer he had worked with, and he immediately said Tessa Hadley, an English novelist who specialises in well-crafted, psychologically acute portraits of women balancing love, self and children. The Past is a family affair, in all senses of the phrase. At the outset, three sisters (later there’s a brother) have to decide how to deal with their childhood home. Bad news, as the three spend most of their time pressing each other’s buttons. Many of these revolve around Alice’s vexed love life, and the way her flirtatious, desperate character sparks off her more grounded sisters. There is something Brontë-esque about the four siblings who open and close the action; the middle section reverses to 1968 and the story of their mother, Jill, leaving her ne’er-do-well husband. Past and present bounce off one another in a way that is satisfying but never contrived. Kate Beamish reads as if she is simply enjoying Hadley’s nuanced, elegant prose. By keeping things understated, she both understands the author and lets her writing breathe. Fantastic.
by Marty Ross (read by various)