The New York Times Book Review - Leah Hager Cohen
Hadley's spell—and she is a spellbinding writer—derives its power from the way she keeps the uncanny almost precisely counterbalanced with the commonplace. No, that's wrong: It's the way she discloses the uncanny within all that is commonplace. Ever so deftly, ever so coolly, she flips over the surface and gives us a glimpse of the repellent or the beguiling or, more often, the repellent-beguiling thing underneath…These pages are rife with finely jarring details and apparently minor trespasses that turn out to reverberate…Turning things inside out, tipping them upside down, placing mismatched objects side by side, nesting harm within harmlessness and vice versa: All this Hadley does to great and various effect, yielding humor here and sorrow there, serving up the bitter along with the delicious. It's as if, for her, stories are about getting to have things both ways. And lucky us: We get to partake.
Publishers Weekly
★ 03/27/2017
Young women and girls take the measure of themselves in Hadley’s remarkably precise and perceptive collection of short stories, set in the middle-class Britain of the 1950s and ’60s and in the present day. Chance encounters disrupt the punctiliously observed rituals of daily life, often leading to a lifetime of consequence for Hadley’s characters. In the excellent “An Abduction,” Jane Allsop’s first sexual experience, at 15, is not traumatic in any ordinary sense, but affects her deeply—whereas the Oxford student she sleeps with retains no memory of it. In “Experience,” Laura, a new divorcée, finds that “letting go of the strain of yearning” is “a relief,” moving on with her life precisely because her attempt at seduction is unsuccessful. In loving families, too, differing viewpoints can lead to resentment and misunderstanding: “Her Share of Sorrow” is the account of an artist—the awkward 10-year-old daughter of an elegant couple—discovering her vocation in writing; in “Bad Dreams,” a bookish girl plays a prank that may have lasting repercussions for her parents’ marriage. And the young designer making a wedding dress for a classmate in “Silk Brocade” becomes witness to the impact of time and happenstance on even the richest and most beautiful material. In subtly insightful and observant prose, Hadley writes brilliantly of the words and gestures that pass unnoticed “in the intensity of present” but echo without cease. (May)
From the Publisher
Marvelous…. Every situation captivates; every carefully chosen word rings true.” — People
“These consummately crafted tales reveal Hadley’s unflinching audacity and her peerless gift for revealing ourselves as we are, not as we wish to be.” — Oprah.com
“It is impossible to overstate how much I admire the work of Tessa Hadley; her mastery of the smallest gestures on the page is breathtaking and her ability to weave a symphonic whole time after time thrilling. Every story in this collection is beautiful, precise, expansive, and a joy.” — Robin Roberts, Good Morning America
“Her meticulously observed, extraordinarily perceptive stories are as satisfying as Alice Munro’s. Yes, Hadley is that good…. Instantly immersive…. Unlike many short story writers, who serve up slices of life cut so thin you’re left craving more, Hadley offers both rich complexity and satisfying closure.” — Heller McAlpin, NPR
“Like Murakami, Tessa Hadley’s marvelous new collection, ‘Bad Dreams and Other Stories’ scrutinizes difficult, messy relationships…. Hadley demonstrates how brief, powerful relationships can forever change people…. Deliciously, Hadley’s characters also practice the art of deceit, unaware how stacked lies will eventually topple over onto them.” — Don Waters, San Francisco Chronicle
“Quietly explosive short stories that reveal, with unsparing precision, the epic drama simmering beneath the mundanity of everyday life…. Achingly lovely, though never sentimental, Hadley’s collection renders common lives with exquisite grace.” — Kirkus, starred review
“Remarkably precise and perceptive…. In subtly insightful and observant prose, Hadley writes brilliantly of the words and gestures that pass unnoticed ‘in the intensity of [the] present’ but echo without cease.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Masterful…. Each story is more memorable than the next as Hadley seduces readers with a reassuring gentleness that craftily covers the steely danger that lies within each flawed and fragile relationship.” — Booklist
“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.” — Kim Hubbard, People, Book of the week, on The Past
“Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each book. She writes with authority, and with delicacy: she explores nuance, but speaks plainly; she is one of those writers a reader trusts.” — Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, on The Past
“What Hadley’s stories share with Munro’s is an extraordinary ability to capture whole worlds — the hopes, disappointments, complexity and arc of characters’ lives — in concise prose that never feels rushed.” — Heller McAplin, San Francisco Chronicle, on Married Love
“Hadley’s genius and Gregory’s splendid performance have given us an audiobook that can be listened to over and over again.” — Washington Post (Audio Edition)
Booklist
Masterful…. Each story is more memorable than the next as Hadley seduces readers with a reassuring gentleness that craftily covers the steely danger that lies within each flawed and fragile relationship.
Don Waters
Like Murakami, Tessa Hadley’s marvelous new collection, ‘Bad Dreams and Other Stories’ scrutinizes difficult, messy relationships…. Hadley demonstrates how brief, powerful relationships can forever change people…. Deliciously, Hadley’s characters also practice the art of deceit, unaware how stacked lies will eventually topple over onto them.
Oprah.com
These consummately crafted tales reveal Hadley’s unflinching audacity and her peerless gift for revealing ourselves as we are, not as we wish to be.
Kim Hubbard
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.
Hilary Mantel
Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each book. She writes with authority, and with delicacy: she explores nuance, but speaks plainly; she is one of those writers a reader trusts.
People
Marvelous…. Every situation captivates; every carefully chosen word rings true.
Heller McAlpin
Her meticulously observed, extraordinarily perceptive stories are as satisfying as Alice Munro’s. Yes, Hadley is that good…. Instantly immersive…. Unlike many short story writers, who serve up slices of life cut so thin you’re left craving more, Hadley offers both rich complexity and satisfying closure.
Robin Roberts
It is impossible to overstate how much I admire the work of Tessa Hadley; her mastery of the smallest gestures on the page is breathtaking and her ability to weave a symphonic whole time after time thrilling. Every story in this collection is beautiful, precise, expansive, and a joy.
Booklist
Masterful…. Each story is more memorable than the next as Hadley seduces readers with a reassuring gentleness that craftily covers the steely danger that lies within each flawed and fragile relationship.
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
It is impossible to overstate how much I admire the work of Tessa Hadley; her mastery of the smallest gestures on the page is breathtaking and her ability to weave a symphonic whole time after time thrilling. Every story in this collection is beautiful, precise, expansive, and a joy.
Washington Post (Audio Edition)
Hadley’s genius and Gregory’s splendid performance have given us an audiobook that can be listened to over and over again.
Heller McAplin
What Hadley’s stories share with Munro’s is an extraordinary ability to capture whole worlds — the hopes, disappointments, complexity and arc of characters’ lives — in concise prose that never feels rushed.
People
Marvelous…. Every situation captivates; every carefully chosen word rings true.
Washington Post (Audio Edition)
Hadley’s genius and Gregory’s splendid performance have given us an audiobook that can be listened to over and over again.
Booklist
Masterful…. Each story is more memorable than the next as Hadley seduces readers with a reassuring gentleness that craftily covers the steely danger that lies within each flawed and fragile relationship.
New York
[Hadley] is finally getting her due as a miniaturist after the sharp heart of Alice Munro.... Hadley often breaks the tethers of the short form by telescoping time, either in description or in reveries that reproduce the pungency of our most important memories — and the insight that comes with their accumulation.
Library Journal
★ 06/15/2017
A loss of innocence lies at the heart of these stories from Windham Campbell Prize winner Hadley. Tinged with sadness and regret, they are often set in bygone eras, viewed through the sharper lens of the present. In "An Abduction," awkward 15-year-old Jane is spirited away by three older boys riding around in search of mischief and adventure. Over a day of shoplifting, recreational drugs, and reckless sex, Jane's naivete begins to fall away. In "The Stain," Marina, a competent and caring housekeeper for an elderly gentleman, finds her feelings toward him gradually become compromised when his brutal South African past comes to light. "One Saturday Morning" begins as ten-year-old Carrie, home alone, answers the door to an old friend of her parents who has arrived unexpectedly. Too shy to entertain him herself, she hides away until her parents return from their errands. Later that day, Carrie overhears conversations that will broaden her understanding of the adult world. In "Flight," old grievances resurface when two estranged sisters reunite after many years apart, with one of them nursing the faint hope of a rapprochement while the other holds fast to her bitterness. VERDICT It is difficult to single out a few stories for special attention in a collection this good. The best advice is to read them all. [See Prepub Alert, 12/5/16.]
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2017-03-07
Acclaimed novelist Hadley (The Past, 2016, etc.) is back with a collection of 10 quietly explosive short stories that reveal, with unsparing precision, the epic drama simmering beneath the mundanity of everyday life.A woman takes a job as a caretaker for a difficult old man and finds herself entangled in the family's internal politics—and unable to avoid learning the secrets of her employer's past. An indolent 10-year-old, generally a disappointment to her elegant parents, discovers the intoxicating power of fiction on a family vacation in the South of France. A young divorcée takes refuge in the empty home of an older and more glamorous acquaintance and becomes increasingly invested in the more intimate details of her hostess's life, first through her diary and then through her ex-lover himself. A mother, now ill, goes to visit her adult daughter in Liverpool and has an odd encounter with a strange young man from the train; a London expat returns to her childhood home in Leeds to reconcile with her sister, long estranged. In the title story, a little girl wakes in the night and is overcome with the desire to "disrupt this world of her home" in more ways than she knows. In the closing piece, a dress designer is commissioned to make an old acquaintance's wedding dress, a venture that is ultimately doomed. Buried under each quotidian moment is the churning of a lifetime; each tiny snapshot seems to offer a window not only into the past, but toward the future. Hadley captures her characters at turning points so subtle they themselves rarely notice them. Ordinary as they are, these are episodes that will echo, softly, throughout her characters' lives. Achingly lovely, though never sentimental, Hadley's collection renders common lives with exquisite grace.
