Synopses & Reviews
Like Alice Munro and Colm Tóibín, Tessa Hadley possesses the remarkable ability to transform the mundane into the sublime — an eye for the beauty, innocence, and irony of ordinary lives that elevates domestic fiction to literary art. In
Clever Girl, she offers the indelible story of one woman's life, unfolded in a series of beautifully sculpted episodes that illuminate an era, moving from the 1960s to today.
Written with the celebrated precision, intensity, and complexity that have marked her previous works, Clever Girl is a powerful exploration of family relationships and class in modern life, witnessed through the experiences of an Englishwoman named Stella. Unfolding in a series of snapshots, Tessa Hadley's involving and moving novel follows Stella from childhood, growing up with her single mother in a Bristol bedsit, into the murky waters of middle age.
It is a story vivid in its immediacy and rich in drama — violent deaths, failed affairs, broken dreams, missed chances. Yet it is Hadley's observations of everyday life, her keen skill at capturing the ways men and women think and feel and relate to one another, that dazzles, pressing us to exclaim with each page, Yes, this is how it is.
Review
“One woman's story comes to exemplify a whole era in this marvelous novel. Tessa Hadley writes with a poet's attentiveness to language, and finds the profound and wondrous in the seemingly quietest of lives.” Ron Rash, author of Serena
Review
“With Clever Girl, Tessa Hadley examines the blunt force of young adulthood. She deftly portrays this short stretch of time in which we make many of the most important decisions of our lives, all while driving under the influence of ignorance and inchoate sexuality.” Carol Anshaw, author of Carry the One
Review
“Quietly brilliant….Hadley has always been adept at drawing out the unrecognisable from the everyday….Domestic fiction is often disparaged as less than serious, but Hadley demonstrates admirably that the genre can carry weight.” Sunday Times (London)
Review
“Lives which are unsophisticated yet experienced intensely, and gorgeously erudite prose are the distinguishing features of Tessa Hadley's writing.” Daily Telegraph (London)
Review
“Like Munro, Hadley is a writer both exact and lyrical, and there are many pleasures to be found along the way, particularly her sensual descriptions of nature, adolescence, and maternity.” The Guardian (London)
Review
“Compelling….For all Stella's spikiness and grittiness, there is a sensuousness to Hadley's writing which revels in richly prolix descriptions of sights and states of mind….Hadley has a genius for pithy analysis….The result consistently rings true despite its very literary artistry.” The Times (London)
Review
“Accomplished, elegant....This novel is the life story of an ordinary, middle-aged woman — Stella. Only that she is not ordinary because Tessa Hadley is writing her into existence and is behind her like a following wind….Hadley writes as a masterly illustrator might draw.” The Observer (London)
Review
“Hadley remains so fixed in Stella's viewpoint that whatever this stubborn, lonely, eloquent character has to tell us, we accept....Subtle, intelligent, and realistic storytelling.” Evening Standard (London)
Review
“An intimate, engrossing and eminently English coming of middle-age story from one of Britain's finest writers….The narrative is episodic and deeply personal, but slowly coalesces to form a mosaic of British life over the past 50 years.” The Independent (London)
Review
“Involving….Intrigues and engages….The smooth narrative echoes Hadley's cool and precise prose.... There's plenty of family drama (including murder) but Hadley's strength is in describing what is often left unnoticed.” Financial Times
Review
“Hadley displays the keen insight and masterful portrayal of the domestic life for which she has become known.” Booklist
Review
“A uniquely gifted writer, Hadley, never vague, possesses a narrative voice that moves the characters through their phases with parenthetic irony. Like an artist dabbing in precise luminous details, she has a masterly grasp of pivotal moments and renders them with brilliant economy.” Library Journal (starred review)
Synopsis
Clever Girl is an indelible story of one woman's life, unfolded in a series of beautifully sculpted episodes that illuminate an era, moving from the 1960s to today, from one of Britain's leading literary lights--Tessa Hadley--the author of the New York Times Notable Books Married Love and The London Train.
Like Alice Munro and Colm Toibin, Tessa Hadley brilliantly captures the beauty, innocence, and irony of ordinary lives--an ability to transform the mundane into the sublime that elevates domestic fiction to literary art.
Written with the celebrated precision, intensity, and complexity that have marked her previous works, Clever Girl is a powerful exploration of family relationships and class in modern life, witnessed through the experiences of an English woman named Stella. Unfolding in a series of snapshots, Tessa Hadley's moving novel follows Stella from the shallows of childhood, growing up with a single mother in a Bristol bedsit in the 1960s, into the murky waters of middle age.
Clever Girl is a story vivid in its immediacy and rich in drama--violent deaths, failed affairs, broken dreams, missed chances. Yet it is Hadley's observations of everyday life, her keen skill at capturing the ways men and women think and feel and relate to one another, that dazzles.
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.
Tessa Hadley on PowellsBooks.Blog
Tessa Hadley is a British novelist and short story writer who is highly praised by critics, frequently published in the
New Yorker, and regularly compared to Alice Munro and Colm Tóibín. But I am convinced she remains underread in this country. Hadley quietly and brilliantly illuminates seemingly ordinary lives in stories that shine with emotional depth...
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