The Master Bedroom: A Novel [Paperback]

Tessa Hadley (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (July 24, 2007)
• ASIN: B000VHBZW4
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slow burn of a read, August 10, 2007

By 

switterbug (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: The Master Bedroom: A Novel (Hardcover)

Hadley has a knack for the unreliable narrator. The truth of a character's life stays hidden even from the character, and yet the paradox is that it makes the character very naked. Although the title is steamy and probably will tease readers of mainstream cant--(writers like Jodi Pocault who write with cliches and cardboard characters), this is a richly textured novel not meant for folks who don't appreciate literature. If you like archetypes and soap-opera level writing, this isn't for you. If you like Virginia Woolf and Iris Murdoch, you might enjoy this book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting romantic triangle, August 12, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Master Bedroom: A Novel (Hardcover)

After more than two decades in London's academic circle, Russian Literature professor Kate Flynn returns to her hometown of Cardiff, Wales to care for her aging mother, Billie. However, without her career or her literary friends, Kate feels somewhat out of place at home. When she meets childhood friend Dr. David Roberts at a concert, Kate is interested as she was attracted to him as a teen and apparently still is.

However, David is married to Suzie, whose recent behavior of vanishing for days and ignoring their children and him when she is home worries the family. He finds temporary sanctuary with Kate. David's seventeen-year-old son Jamie also finds comfort with Kate; as her artsy eccentricity makes her seem so much younger than his parents. As the two Roberts court Kate in their differing peculiar ways, she tries to keep the triangle from imploding.

This is an interesting romantic triangle starring three fully developed protagonists. Kate is the prime focus of the story line of a woman in a middle age crisis dealing with an older mom and no vocation to keep her mind from wandering. Adding to her being the star is obviously the two males who desire her while she wants the older one without harming the younger one. Fans of deep character studies will appreciate Tessa Hadley discerning look at a woman at the crossroads of her life.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 out of 5: An Intimate Masterpiece, August 6, 2008

By 

Gwendolyn Dawson "Literary License" (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Master Bedroom: A Novel (Paperback)

The Master Bedroom is an intimate drama centered on a middle-aged woman who becomes romantically entangled with a married man and his son during the year she returns to her childhood home to care for her elderly mother. Hadley excels at describing the small details of human interactions (the handshake that lingers longer than necessary, the purposeful brush of contact, the subtle change of voice). There aren't any soap operatic scenes in The Master Bedroom, but Hadley nevertheless creates a quiet kind of dramatic tension that quickly propels the plot. In addition to Hadley's narrative finesse, her well-crafted prose makes The Master Bedroom a joy to read. Highly recommended.