Evelyn had the surprising thought that bodies were sometimes wiser than the people inside them. She’d have liked to impress somebody with this idea, but couldn’t explain it.
On a winter Saturday night in post-war Bristol, sisters Moira and Evelyn, on the cusp of adulthood, go to an art students’ party in a dockside pub; there they meet two men, Paul and Sinden, whose air of worldliness and sophistication both intrigues and repels them. Sinden calls a few days later to invite them over to the grand suburban mansion Paul shares with his brother and sister, and Moira accepts despite Evelyn’s misgivings.
As the night unfolds in this unfamiliar, glamorous new setting, the sisters learn things about themselves and each other that shock them, and release them into a new phase of their lives.
I have never come across this author before, I just stopped up this short novella during a recent trip to Waterstones for no reason other than I like to read a few short books at the end of the year 9don’t ask me why, it’s just a thing, I don’t really understand it myself!) I then found out she has an impressive backlist and a long list of high profile admirers, so I was keen to read this and see why.
The book is set in the 1950s, in post-war Bristol and tells the story of two sisters, Moira and Evelyn. They are in their late teens/early twenties and venturing out into life in the art scene and on the cusp of the sexual revolution. The girls are finding their feet as women, searching for what it means to be a young female in a world that is irrevocably changing. What does this new found freedom offer them that is worth having?
I am an unapologetic feminist in every respect but I have to say, this book made me profoundly sad by the end. Their story did not appear to me to be one of liberation and female empowerment but confusion and disappointment.. That sound women’s first steps into discovering what the world, and new opportunities, has to offer them results in what happens in this book is tragic, to be frank, and I am glad that this was not my experience when I was a similar age forty years later. Maybe the world is not as backward as we think.
Would I read more by this author? The writing was sublime – evocative and moving – and the fact that it made me feel as profoundly as I did over such a short number of pages is testament to the power of the work. However, I would have to be in the right frame of mind for work that is so downbeat, and Christmas isn’t the right time for this. One to add to the list for down the line when melancholy is the mood I am looking for.
The Party is out now in hardback, ebook and audio formats and you can buy a copy here.
About the Author
Tessa Hadley is the author of four highly praised novels: Accidents in the Home, which was long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award; Everything Will Be All Right; The Master Bedroom; and The London Train, which was a New York Times Notable Book. She is also the author of two short-story collections, Sunstroke and Married Love, both of which were New York Times Notable Books as well. Her stories appear regularly in the New Yorker. She lives in London.
