Lu Juin 2023 ( )

I really liked this book. I love stories about family dynamics and this doesn't disappoint. ( )

I am consciously trying to read more contemporary authors and it feels refreshing - but I have to say, reading references to modern day norms and objects such as iPhones, is still disconcerting for me. I am, pardon the pun, stuck in the past. And it is where I feel most comfortable. Through no fault of the author, mentions of present day lifestyles so casually weaved through the writing still makes me flinch. I am trying to bypass it, but I think I will always feel more comfortable getting lost in a world that revolves around people minus their annoying 21st century habits.
Having said all this, this book was still enjoyable and each character is distinctly memorable; their differences and character traits so clearly presented that I felt I knew exactly who they were and exactly what the author was getting at. She seems to take characters from a certain circle of life and subtly amplify them for the reader to go 'Ohhh, he/she is THAT kind of person'. This circle is pretty limited though considering the story follows the lives of members from one particular family - and that family is extremely middle-class. Similarly, as in Hadley's other work 'Late In The Day', it is all very much sophisticated foods, political and cultural discussions, luxurious materials in clothing - an all in all London meets continental ambiance. I did enjoy recognising these connotations and experiencing them through the writing, but a whole bookful of it can get a bit annoying.... ( )

While "The Past" has no plot to speak of, even so I stayed up until 1 a.m. last night to finish it. I've rarely felt this invested in characters, or felt so tenderly toward fictional beings. Hadley moves freely from one character's interior thoughts and feelings to the next. We never learn the full story of any one character. And yet. What we do learn is so apt, so human, that I feel very close to these people. Where the novel soars is in its exploration of private pain, of the essential loneliness of being inside a body, apart from others, thinking thoughts and having feelings that can never be fully known by another. The people in this story are rarely alone, but they're always alone. The point of view most prevalent throughout the novel is being inside the head of a person who is feeling their flaws and isolation from others, feeling these things as a private grief, even when they know they are in the midst of people who love them. This novel is not an unhappy novel, though. It's full of buoyant light, and hope, that even though each of us is frail and flawed, other people find a way to love us. ( )

This book felt like an utter waste of time. The prose while lovely, the story and characters were lifeless. I couldn't have cared any less what happened to them. There was a hint that something tragic had happened at the end but that too turned out to be incedibly dull. ( )