Clever Girl
Book description
An indelible story of one woman’s life, revealed in a series of beautifully sculpted episodes that illuminate an era, moving from the 1960s to today, from one of Britain’s leading literary lights—Tessa Hadley.
“Clever Girl is…what could be called a ‘sensibility’ novel—a story that doesn’t overreach, about a character who…
Why read it?
1 author picked Clever Girl as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
A lower-middle-class girl grows up in provincial England, and we follow her from early childhood through middle age. That’s it. She has a few relationships, a few kids, and some friendships. She fights with her mother, she works, and she thinks about her life, but only in passing because she’s busy living.
The kind of book that’s not supposed to work, except it does. It was technically marketed as a novel but exists on the disputed border between connected short story collections and novels. Each section can be read by itself and is a world unto itself. This book is…
From Kate's list on short stories that make domestic life seem weird.
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