You can count on Tessa Hadley for atmospheric, sophisticated stories of familial and romantic relationships in mid- to late-twentieth-century England. The Party is a novella of sisters Moira and Evelyn, university students on the cusp of womanhood. In 1950s Bristol, the Second World War casts a long shadow and new conflicts loom – Moira’s former beau was sent to Malaya. Suave as they try to seem, with Evelyn peppering her speech with the phrases she’s learning in the first year of her French degree, the girls can’t hide their origins in the Northeast. When Evelyn joins Moira at an art students’ party in a pub, fashionable outfits make them look older and more confident than they really are. Evelyn admits to her classmate, Donald, “I’m always disappointed at parties. I long to be, you know, a succès fou, but I never am.” Then the sisters meet Paul and Sinden, who flatter them by taking an interest; they are attracted to the men’s worldly wise air but also find them oddly odious.
The novella’s three chapters each revolve around a party. First is the Bristol dockside pub party (published as a short story in the New Yorker); second is a cocktail party the girls’ parents are preparing for, giving us a window onto their troubled marriage; finally is a gathering Paul invites them to at the shabby inherited mansion he lives in with his cousin, invalid brother, and louche sister. “We camp in it like kids,” Paul says. “Just playing at being grown up, you know.” During their night spent at the mansion, the sisters become painfully aware of the class difference between them and Paul’s moneyed family. The divide between innocence and experience may be sharp, but the line between love and hatred is not always as clear as they expected. And from moments of decision all the rest of life flows.
In her novels and story collections, Hadley often writes about strained families, young women on the edge, and the way sex can force a change in direction. This was my eighth time reading her, and though The Party is as stylish as all her work, it didn’t particularly stand out for me, lacking the depth of her novels and the concentration of her stories. Still, it would be a good introduction to Hadley or, if you’re an established fan like me, you could read it in a sitting and be reminded of her sharp eye for manners and pretensions – and the emotions they mask.
[115 pages]
With thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and Jonathan Cape (Penguin) for the proof copy for review.
Buy The Party from Bookshop.org [affiliate link]
I was delighted to be part of the blog tour for The Party. See below for details of where other reviews have appeared or will appear soon.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I’ve only ever read Hadley in the New Yorker, oddly—I’ve never gone out and actually acquired one of her books—but her writing has that quiet, author’s-author air about it.
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A writer’s writer for sure. That’s probably a good way to encounter her — controversially, I think I prefer her short stories to her longer-form fiction.
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Skimming your review as I’ll be running my own next week but I will say as an on the fence Hadley reader, this one’s converted me.
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Oh, how interesting! Have you read her short stories? If not, they’re a must.
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I haven’t but plan to do so. Is there a collection you’d recommend?
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I’ve read all four. I think my favourite was Bad Dreams and Other Stories.
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Thanks for the blog tour support x
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You’re welcome, and thank you for your organising 🙂
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I’ve read some Hadley but I think I’d be keener to try her short stories than this one.
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I’d recommend her stories. They’re very elegant.
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This is a new author to me. I’ll have to check her out.
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I think you generally enjoy quiet books and English authors, so you should like her!
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Oh, good!
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This sounds good but ‘lacking the depth of her novels and the concentration of her stories’ sums up my general attitude to novellas so I’ll probably go for the short stories instead 🙂
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Fair enough. But it’s definitely not always the case; some novellas manage to fit novel-sized plot and characterization into 100-150 pages! Thinking of Train Dreams and Academy Street, for instance.
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I am falling in love with novellas as a writing form. Short, sharp and done. This one sounds like a good one.
<a href=”https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2024/11/novella-reviews-whereabouts-rita.html“>My Week-3 Novella Reviews</a>
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Thank you for your reviews, Anne! I’m delighted to hear that you’re enjoying novellas this month.
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It seems like I am finding a new reading community, too. Thanks for co-hosting this.
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I just saved “Vincent’s Party” in the New Yorker to read later. I think that’s my last free article of the month, and a good one I’m sure! I also just read an excerpt from Han Kang’s forthcoming novel in there and it was great.
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Great, that’s the first “story” (chapter) of this novella 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
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I’ve been told I’ll like Hadley so many times, but I don’t think I’ll start with this one. But it’s useful to read your thoughts on it.
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You wouldn’t be the first person to come to mind as a potential fan, but then again, you often surprise me with your taste on the rare occasions when you read contemporary litfic!
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I have been told by several people that she’s like Iris Murdoch …
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Huh. I guess I can see it!
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I just read one of her stories in the New Yorker – I recognized the sisters’ names. I liked it a lot and will look for this book.
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Wonderful! I think a lot of people have discovered her through the NY. I hope you enjoy it or whatever else you might try by her.
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I’ve only read two but I’d like to read more and have gathered up a couple in anticipation. I wonder if this would be an interesting comparison with A Summer Bird-Cage (Drabble’s first), which I think you’ve read or reread recently too?
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I read the Drabble in summer 2020, which doesn’t seem so recent anymore! I’d say it’s a better example of a sisters novel.
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Four years doesn’t necessarily feel long when it comes to reading, but with anything around 2020, time is elasticised.
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Very true!
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