After the Funeral by Tessa Hadley

I love the confessional and documentarian style of Hadley. It’s precise, intelligent, and never frivolous.

Her style shines through in these short stories where she really gets to the heart of the matter quickly.

These stories are all varied, but they tend to follow the lives of women in moments of high stress or high emotion. I especially enjoyed the story about a woman going to see her ex-husband in his new house… A delicious relationship autopsy. Then there’s the three sisters in their old house while their mother dies in hospital. How will childhood rivalries surface?

The way Hadley builds atmosphere through setting and incisive emotional commentary is genius. Her stories feel “so real” – anchored in contemporary society, yet universal.

I have now read two short story collections by Hadley and they are both excellent. I have a few of her novels at home, and I am curious to see whether the same style travels across the genres.

I think some of the subjects of these stories are ultimately relatively banal, but that just makes them all the more true and compelling. They say a lot without having to push out into the magical or surreal.