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Married Love (2012)

by Tessa Hadley(Favorite Author)

3.55 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0224096427 (ISBN13: 9780224096423)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Jonathan Cape

review 1: Whenever I go to Atticus Books in New Haven I have a habit of picking up a book of short stories by an author I hadn't heard about before, but fall in love with - and this was no exception. Hadley's writing style is something to aspire to. But she also doesn't alienate her characters with her prose, which is a remarkable trait: to write something both beautiful and relatable. She is clearly an old hand at this.
review 2: Tessa Hadley is a supremely gifted writer who brings you into her characters' perfectly situated lives of quiet desperation. Her fully fleshed-out and realized stories are exquisite (comparable to the great Alice Munro) while the remainder read more like character sketches (albeit ones with beautiful imagery and prose)."Married Love," "A Mouthf... moreul of Cut Glass," "Because the Night," "Journey Home," "In the Country," "In the Cave," and "Post Production" are all filled with perceptive character insights, beautiful imagery, and evocative prose, but the endings (and their accompanying epiphanies) seemed too slight and abrupt to me (or perhaps I just wanted more of Hadley's characters?)Hadley also has a habit of lingering over her stories' last paragraphs just a little too long, when a more succinct ending would have been much more powerful.On the other hand, I really did admire Hadley's openness to trying out different narrative styles (from the broad, sweeping time shifts of "The Trojan Prince" to the intense focus on one cleaning lady's daily minutiae and fears in "Friendly Fire.")Hadley returns to certain themes again and again: the life lived by a certain kind of woman artist, student politics seen from the vantage point of one's older and more conservative years, the pretensions that accompany first love, and how your background shapes you more than you can imagine -- or want.She even explores more quotidian themes such as the modern use of mobile phones (both friend and foe) and the aging process of auburn hair. less

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