Bad Dreams and Other Stories

Starred review from March 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.

Starred review from March 15, 2017
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 divorcee 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.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 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.]

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2017

Winner of Hawthornden and Windham Campbell honors, Hadley returns after the tautly strung family tale The Past with short stories that show the hidden depths and tensions in the simplest moments. With a 20,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.