Sunstroke and Other Stories [Deckle Edge] [Paperback]

Tessa Hadley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 24, 2007

 

A Picador Paperback Original
 
Tessa Hadley's stories trace the currents of desire, desperation, and mischief that that lie hidden inside domestic relationships.
 
A mother hears her son's confession that he's cheating on his girlfriend; a student falls in love with a professor and initiates an affair with a man who looks just like him. A boy on a seaside vacation realizes that a grown-up woman is pressing dangerously close.
 
In Tessa Hadley's stories, everyone conspires to hold the loving and stable surface of family life together, as old secrets and new appetites threaten to blow it apart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ten elegant stories from Welsh author Hadley (Everything Will Be All Right) explore the various stages of women's experience. The title story, set at a seaside cottage in Wales and told in an austerely omniscient voice, tracks two attractive early-30ish mothers, one married, the other partnered, who each begin a flirtation with a visiting doctor friend. In Mother's Son, the other woman in an adulterous affair that ended 20 years before finds herself ruefully counseling her grown son—the product of the affair—on dealing with his romantic troubles. Each of these beautifully crafted tales (some set in the 1970s) encapsulates a tender, transformative moment for these real characters, such as the provincial vicar's daughter in Buckets of Blood sent up to visit her older sister in Cambridge for the week who finds, to her horror and disappointment, her sister reeling from a miscarriage that puts her, like their worn-out mother, among the ranks of women submerged and knowing amid their biology. In another tale, a man tracks down the now matronly woman who flirted with him when he was a blushing 13-year-old on a seaside holiday with his family 25 years before. Hadley's eerie, knowing portrayals speak to the heart as much as the mind.
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Review

"Miraculous . . . Deft and resonant, [these stories] encapsulate moments of hope and humiliation in a kind of shorthand of different lives lived.  Hadley never fails to surprise."--The New York Times Book Review

"Tessa Hadley's gift as a writer is so considerable that her characters' revelations and predicaments linger in the mind long after her narrative has darted off in other directions."--Alice Traux, The New York Times Book Review
 
"A warm novel that follows the contours of four generations of a family and, in the end, shows us ourselves."--Associated Press on Everything Will Be All Right
 
"Marvelously intricate . . . Hadley's intelligence puts her in the company of Carol Shields and Doris Lessing."--The Boston Globe on Accidents in the Home

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (July 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312425996
• ISBN-13: 978-0312425999
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,034,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, Surprising Stories, August 28, 2007

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sunstroke and Other Stories (Paperback)

Tessa Hadley's Sunstroke is a marvelous collection of short stories. I can't tell you how many times I pick up a book of stories and just can't get through it for a variety of reasons. Sunstroke was the opposite. These stories are terrific, well-written, witty and thought-provoking. Perhaps the best thing I can say about them is that while reading them, I would come to the last few pages of a story and know, after reading a few, that Hadley had some sort of twist coming, something subtle but still surprising. These stories don't dissappoint. Highly recommended. Enjoy!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Short Fiction, September 7, 2007

By 

S. Karon (Iowa City, IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sunstroke and Other Stories (Paperback)

Rarely is every story in a collection this good. Hadley's prose is keenly intelligent, her characters are flawed, raw, and vulnerable, and her voice is wonderful: wry and honest, sometimes punitive, always compelling. Truly a collection to savor - these stories will stay with you long after you finish reading them.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Girls don't always have fun, July 2, 2010

By 

D. P. Birkett (Suffern, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sunstroke and Other Stories (Paperback)

These brilliant stories about family relationships are often set with the primary action in the sixties or seventies in provincial England or Wales and with an aftermath in the 21st century. The tales are told from a female point of view and there is something unsatisfactory about the men in their lives. The women, especially the adolescents are shy, clever, self-denigrating and self-sacrificing. There's no major tragedy but a melancholy tinge. Loves are not consummated but sex leads to regret. Even food is not enjoyed and all the beaches are described with distaste. People seldom have a good time unless they drink too much, smoke pot, or are unperceptive jocks. The humor often comes from puncturing the pomposity of pretentious males or poking sly fun at characters who attempt artistic and literary endeavors that are second-rate.
That all sounds a bit negative but these really are superb entertainments, full of great insight and sharp wit.