The New York Times Book Review - James Lasdun
At the heart of Gwendoline Riley's short, dark, funny novel is a marriage in which bullying self-pity and perplexed self-abasement collide in a series of savage little jousts that ought to be unbearable to witness, but are in fact mesmerizing and perversely tender…There's a strain of English writing that exists, broadly speaking, in defiance of "Englishness" in its generally accepted sense of crippling reserve and awful weather…But there's another strain (early Jean Rhys comes to mind, with her cleareyed heroines staring at the abyss in rented rooms) that embraces that gloom, offering, by way of redemption, not sex and sunshine but style and wit. First Love, with its haiku-like evocations of grotty British cityscapes, its fine ear for the ways in which love inverts itself into cruelty, its preference for scrupulous psychological detail over grandiose epic sweep, is a stellar example of this tradition, and proof of its continued vitality.
From the Publisher
"This is an emotional landscape (read: battlefield) in which every plant has roots in the past. Novels with “memory” as their primary subject do not always signal “page-turner,” but Riley’s writing is equal parts charm and weight, social and moral observation." —Sloane Crosley, Departures
"In six short novels of increasing refinement, the English writer Gwendoline Riley has explored the everyday terrors of family and conversation. . . .distinguished by bleak humor, remarkably vivid dialogue and flint-sharp prose." —Timothy Farrington, The Wall Street Journal
"First Love. . .is a razor-sharp portrait of everyday life in a volatile marriage. . . . By turns discomforting and irreverently comic, Riley's novel is always insightful as it grapples with [the main character’s] central dilemma: 'People we've loved, or tried to: how to characterize the forms they assume?'"—Alice Martin, Shelf Awareness
"Eloquent and compelling reading. . . . Riley’s brilliant ear for dialogue falls in an excellent British literary lineage that includes Henry Green and Barbara Pym. . . . Riley’s bitter precision, replete with dark humor, offers perhaps more reality than our saccharine culture wishes to contend with, and this may explain why her work is not yet better known in the United States. . . . We are fortunate when so gifted a writer illuminates, with such nuance, what life is like." —Claire Messud, Harpers
"Very clever, very devastating novels that capture the excruciating separateness that can define our most intimate relationships. They are full of awkward, perfunctory dinners with family members, pointless rehashed arguments with lovers, and stunted catch-ups with old friends long outgrown. Improbably, they are also laugh-out-loud funny. . . . Her books stand apart." —Rachel Connolly, Vulture
"Riley’s prose is deceptively simple, drawing you further and further into the labyrinth of the self. . . She takes a familiar theme of midlife minor angst and focuses in, closer and closer, until the banal becomes surreal, even beautiful. The effect is beguiling, like viewing everyday objects through a magnifying glass, or miniaturism for existentialists. . . . Exquisite and combative." —Joanna Kavenna, The Guardian
"An exceptionally good novel. Compressed to the limit of viability and yet filled with startlingly memorable descriptions and images. . . An impossible little wonder of a book, terrifying and horrible. . . Alarming, provocative, almost antagonistic—the reader pitched against the writer in a redrawing of battle lines. Take up the gauntlet with Gwendoline Riley: it’s worth it." —Alex Clark, TLS
"Riley writes in pared-back, deceptively light sentences that twist and turn the emotional landscape almost imperceptibly. . . Witheringly precise, often funny. First Love says something very honest about relationships, and with an idiosyncratic style this sharp, who minds if it is not a departure from what has come before?" —Francesca Angelini, The Sunday Times
"Emotion throbs through Riley’s spare, sharp prose. Her dialogue captures the cadences of contemporary conversation perfectly, her portraits are so nuanced that every character feels real, and she is funny and painfully true on the difficulty of honest communication. . . Riley’s examination of human relationships is bleak, yet her vision is so expansive, her analysis so blistering, that First Love resonates with a power that is bittersweet and highly affecting." —Francesca Wade, Financial Times
"Elegantly written; Riley’s prose [is] shimmering and luminous. . . Riley’s writing has always been clear, focused, still—rather like an Edward Hopper painting—but First Love is fuller, more refined, and underpinned by a suffocating tension. . . It shows a writer at the height of her powers, snaring her themes into a singular, devastating journey into the ungovernable reaches of the heart." —Stuart Evers, Observer
"Exquisite. . . Riley expertly frustrates the reader’s desire to create meaningful causal relationships. . . Searing." —Philly Malicka, Sunday Times
New Statesman (UK)
Almost impossible to turn away from.”
New York Times Book Review
At the heart of Gwendoline Riley’s short, dark, funny novel is a marriage in which bullying self-pity and perplexed self-abasement collide in a series of savage little jousts that ought to be unbearable to witness, but are in fact mesmerizing and perversely tender.”
The Guardian
Gwendoline Riley [is] a fascinating novelist…She takes a familiar theme of midlife minor angst and focuses in, closer and closer, until the banal becomes surreal, even beautiful. The effect is beguiling…First Love is an exquisite and combative piece of news from nowhere—which is everywhere, too.”
author of All That Man Is David Szalay
Gwendoline Riley writes beautifully and memorably. First Love is evocative, often funny, and very moving.”
