With each new book by Tessa Hadley, I grow more convinced that she’s one of the greatest stylists alive…. To read Hadley’s fiction is to grow self-conscious in the best way: to recognize with astonishment the emotions playing behind our own expressions, to hear articulated our own inchoate anxieties….The whole grief-steeped story should be as fun as a dirge, but instead it feels effervescent—lit not with mockery but with the energy of Hadley’s attention, her sensitivity to the abiding comedy of human desire…. Extraordinary.” — Ron Charles, Washington Post
“[Hadley] is a gifted anatomist of human relationships, with those among family members being her specialty. Her particular genius lies in the elegance and precision with which she captures the fleeting emotion, the passing, indefinable perception or tiny epiphany.” — Katherine Powers, Wall Street Journal
“Gorgeous, utterly absorbing…. More than many of her contemporaries, the British writer Tessa Hadley understands that life is full of moments when the past presses up against the present, and when the present transforms the past. Her brilliant new novel, Late in the Day, explores both with equal urgency.” — Margot Livesey, Boston Globe
“Brilliant.... In the hands of a lesser novelist, the intricate tangle of lives at the center of Late in the Day would feel like just such a self-satisfied riddle or, at best, like sly narrative machinations. Because this is Tessa Hadley, it instead feels earned and real and, even in its smallest nuances, important.... It’s to her credit that Hadley manages to be old-fashioned and modernist and brilliantly postmodern all at once.... We’ve seen this before, and we’ve never seen this before, and it’s spectacular.” — Rebecca Makkai, The New York Times Book Review
“Sumptuous… Hadley’s fiction—both long and short—has, with a delicious, detached clarity, observed the shape of relationships: their unconventionality, their transgressions. She is a superb stylist, with none of the pretensions that have latterly been attached to such a term: dispassionate, yet voluptuous in her prose.” — Financial Times
“Strange, unsettling — eerily beautiful, discomfiting, stay-up-late-addictive, sometimes hair-raising.... Always, it’s Hadley’s high-res magnification on the interplay of marital (and friendship, and parental) dynamics that supplies her work’s steady gold.” — Joan Frank, San Francisco Chronicle
“An immersive tale of two intertwined couples…. Hadley tells a juicy story in the voice of a poet.” — People ‘s Best New Books
“Tessa Hadley is well-known for her inimitable portrayal of character and her latest effort, Late in the Day , is no disappointment.... A smart exploration of human nature, desire, and friendship.” — Vanity Fair
“Her prose has the penetrating quality of Henry James at his most accessible… and is alert, as Virginia Woolf and Elizabeth Bowen were, to how time sculpts, warps or casually destroys us…. A quiet triumph.” — Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times
“The British novelist does what she does best: excavate the tensions and traumas that linger in the most seemingly normal families and relationships.” — Huffington Post
“Reading Late in the Day feels both prurient—we are so deeply inside the emotional rhythms of this home—and marvelous, in its elevation of a boring middle-class marriage into a fable of warring identities.” — New Republic
“A domestic drama of the first order. The marriages are characters in themselves; going through transformative arcs of their own.” — Refinery29
“Riveting…. A four-person character study—here as always, Hadley is a master of interpersonal dynamics—the novel captures the complexity of loss.” — Kirkus, starred review
“Perceptive, finely wrought…. Hadley is a writer of the first order, and this novel gives her the opportunity to explore, with profound incisiveness and depth, the inevitable changes inherent to long-lasting marriages.” — Publishers Weekly
“A layered and compelling read.” — Booklist
“In the fine tradition of women’s fiction by authors such as Margaret Drabble, Penelope Lively, and Rachel Cusk exploring relationships among the cultured classes, Hadley’s place is secure.” — Library Journal , starred review
“An excellent place to start if you haven’t yet discovered Tessa Hadley.” — Book Riot
Sumptuous… Hadley’s fiction—both long and short—has, with a delicious, detached clarity, observed the shape of relationships: their unconventionality, their transgressions. She is a superb stylist, with none of the pretensions that have latterly been attached to such a term: dispassionate, yet voluptuous in her prose.
Her prose has the penetrating quality of Henry James at his most accessible… and is alert, as Virginia Woolf and Elizabeth Bowen were, to how time sculpts, warps or casually destroys us…. A quiet triumph.
Brilliant.... In the hands of a lesser novelist, the intricate tangle of lives at the center of Late in the Day would feel like just such a self-satisfied riddle or, at best, like sly narrative machinations. Because this is Tessa Hadley, it instead feels earned and real and, even in its smallest nuances, important.... It’s to her credit that Hadley manages to be old-fashioned and modernist and brilliantly postmodern all at once.... We’ve seen this before, and we’ve never seen this before, and it’s spectacular.
Strange, unsettling — eerily beautiful, discomfiting, stay-up-late-addictive, sometimes hair-raising.... Always, it’s Hadley’s high-res magnification on the interplay of marital (and friendship, and parental) dynamics that supplies her work’s steady gold.
Tessa Hadley is well-known for her inimitable portrayal of character and her latest effort, Late in the Day , is no disappointment.... A smart exploration of human nature, desire, and friendship.
An immersive tale of two intertwined couples…. Hadley tells a juicy story in the voice of a poet.
With each new book by Tessa Hadley, I grow more convinced that she’s one of the greatest stylists alive…. To read Hadley’s fiction is to grow self-conscious in the best way: to recognize with astonishment the emotions playing behind our own expressions, to hear articulated our own inchoate anxieties….The whole grief-steeped story should be as fun as a dirge, but instead it feels effervescent—lit not with mockery but with the energy of Hadley’s attention, her sensitivity to the abiding comedy of human desire…. Extraordinary.
The British novelist does what she does best: excavate the tensions and traumas that linger in the most seemingly normal families and relationships.
A layered and compelling read.
A domestic drama of the first order. The marriages are characters in themselves; going through transformative arcs of their own.
An excellent place to start if you haven’t yet discovered Tessa Hadley.
Reading Late in the Day feels both prurient—we are so deeply inside the emotional rhythms of this home—and marvelous, in its elevation of a boring middle-class marriage into a fable of warring identities.
Sumptuous… Hadley’s fiction—both long and short—has, with a delicious, detached clarity, observed the shape of relationships: their unconventionality, their transgressions. She is a superb stylist, with none of the pretensions that have latterly been attached to such a term: dispassionate, yet voluptuous in her prose.
A layered and compelling read.
Tessa Hadley is well-known for her inimitable portrayal of character and her latest effort, Late in the Day , is no disappointment.... A smart exploration of human nature, desire, and friendship.
The British novelist does what she does best: excavate the tensions and traumas that linger in the most seemingly normal families and relationships.
Reading Late in the Day feels both prurient—we are so deeply inside the emotional rhythms of this home—and marvelous, in its elevation of a boring middle-class marriage into a fable of warring identities.
Sumptuous… Hadley’s fiction—both long and short—has, with a delicious, detached clarity, observed the shape of relationships: their unconventionality, their transgressions. She is a superb stylist, with none of the pretensions that have latterly been attached to such a term: dispassionate, yet voluptuous in her prose.
A layered and compelling read.
An immersive tale of two intertwined couples…. Hadley tells a juicy story in the voice of a poet.
An immersive tale of two intertwined couples…. Hadley tells a juicy story in the voice of a poet.
Hadley brings her increasingly fine-tuned emotional acuity to Late in the Day , in which past and present again intermix as snugly as her characters.... Living exclusively in the moment may be the watchword of our time – but in practice it is far less interesting than the layered, nuanced lives Hadley devises for her characters.
This well-drawn and absorbing character study bears all the hallmarks of Hadley’s best work: it’s perceptive, intelligent and written with astonishing emotional depth... A master of interpersonal dynamics, Hadley captures the complexity of loss, grief, and friendship with a clarity of vision that brings the natural and material worlds into sharp focus.
[A] splendid, perceptive book…. Hadley has expertly examined the complications and intimacies of marriage and family in such novels as The Past , The Master Bedroom and Clever Girl. In Late in the Day she continues her persistent exploration of human frailty and resilience, moving easily between the present and the past to reveal the hard edges and silent compromises that shape all relationships.
10/08/2018Bad Dreams ) traces the impact of the death of one man on three others. When affable art gallery owner Zachary dies suddenly in his 50s, he leaves behind not only his flamboyant and determinedly helpless widow, Lydia, but also the couple closest to them, Alex and Christine. Alex, an acerbic failed poet turned primary school teacher, and Christine, an artist who frequently exhibits her work in Zach’s gallery, have a long, complicated relationship with Zach and Lydia. Christine and Lydia, friends since childhood, met the two slightly older men when the young women were just out of college. Lydia set her sights on the melancholy Alex, who barely noticed her. Instead, he settled into a relationship with the at first reluctant Christine after her brief fling with Zach, who was actually infatuated with Lydia. Over the years, the two couples settled into the passive happiness of married life, but Zach’s death forces Lydia, Alex, and Christine to finally confront the feelings Alex and Lydia have for each other. As the two move forward together, and Christine, to her own surprise, discovers that she relishes time alone, Alex and Christine’s daughter Grace decides to make a death mask of her father, and moves in with Alex and Christine’s daughter Isobel. Hadley is a writer of the first order, and this novel gives her the opportunity to explore, with profound incisiveness and depth, the inevitable changes inherent to long-lasting marriages. (Jan.)
Gorgeous, utterly absorbing…. More than many of her contemporaries, the British writer Tessa Hadley understands that life is full of moments when the past presses up against the present, and when the present transforms the past. Her brilliant new novel, Late in the Day, explores both with equal urgency.
[A] splendid, perceptive book…. Hadley has expertly examined the complications and intimacies of marriage and family in such novels as The Past , The Master Bedroom and Clever Girl. In Late in the Day she continues her persistent exploration of human frailty and resilience, moving easily between the present and the past to reveal the hard edges and silent compromises that shape all relationships.
Deliciously precise.... Built in a Chekhovian manner, handily assembling the grown members of an extended family and their offspring under one roof.... Hadley is adept at delineating the Cranes’ brand of cultured middle-class Britishness in all its generational mutations.
New York Times Book Review
Hadley is so insightful, such a lovely writer, that she pulls you right into the tangle of wires that connect and trip up the stressed siblings. She makes you feel for these imperfect people, want to scold them, and ultimately accept them as they are. Just like family.
★ 2018-10-02
The 30-year bond between a quartet of close friends—two couples—comes unglued when one of them dies unexpectedly in Hadley's (The Past , 2016, etc.) quietly riveting latest.
Christine and Alex and Lydia and Zachary have been close since their early 20s; now in their 50s, they're still close, the friendships among them still anchoring their lives. And then one night, Christine and Alex are listening to music when the telephone rings. It's Lydia, from the hospital. Zachary is dead. He was fine, at his office at the gallery, talking about the next show, and then he wasn't. Then he keeled over and was dead. For all the years they've known each other, Zachary has been a gentle force of nature. "Of all of us," Christine thinks, "he's the one we couldn't afford to lose." In the immediate aftermath of his death, the families band together: Alex goes to collect Lydia and Zachary's daughter from college; Lydia comes to live, for a while, with her best friends. The women have been close since childhood, Lydia theatrical and romantic and borderline frivolous; Christine serious and artistic, the practical one of the pair. Shortly after university, the women met Alex and Zachary, also childhood friends. In the early days, it was Lydia who was in love with Alex, although he was unhappily married to somebody else. Zachary was well-matched with Christine. The partnerships evolved without animosity: Zachary married Lydia, in the end. Alex married Christine. For three decades, they remained close, the history between them no threat to the happy present. But after Zachary's death, their pleasant equilibrium is thrown forever off-kilter, as remnants from the past bubble up to the surface. A four-person character study—here as always, Hadley is a master of interpersonal dynamics—the novel captures the complexity of loss. Their grief is not only for Zachary; it is for the lives they thought they knew.
Restrained and tender.
