Clever, naive and eager for experience, Evelyn is in her first year of a French degree at Bristol’s university. Her elder sister, Moira, is an art student, more worldly than Evelyn with definite views about what she wants and a determination to get it. They both catch the eye of Paul, a beautiful boy, clearly rich and very drunk, and his companion Sinden, older, dissolute and cynical, at an art college party from which the sisters make a hasty escape, just in time to catch the last bus home. When Sinden calls inviting them to a house in a wealthy area of Bristol, Moira sees an opportunity overcoming Evelyn’s reluctance. What follows is a night that changes them both.
Hadley packs a great deal into this brief novella, exploring class, social norms, marriage and gender in post-war Britain, choosing her words carefully and conveying a great deal in a few sentences. The old order is portrayed as decadent and debauched while social change has opened up a very different future from their mother’s life for the sisters. These are women eager for life, capable of writing off their experience with the depraved Sinden as a drunken mistake from which they emerge wiser, more the women they aspire to be. I much preferred this to Hadley’s lengthier novels which can sometimes feel a little claustrophobic.

I've come round relatively recently to Tess Hadley's writing and The Party is no disappointment. It's set in an unspecified postwar Bristol, where two sisters attempt to negotiate life, growing up, sex and independence. There is quite a lot of incident (two parties in fact) crammed into a fairly long novella, in which Hadley shows a characteristic lightness of touch and beauty of style. There are some lovely descriptions: Evelyn (the central character) is "more yielding and self-doubting and hesitant" than her more confident older sister, Moira. Their mother is "eccentric... wayward and rash". There is some impressive shorthand characterisation at work her. Impressive.

An irresistible novella about two sisters and a night that changes everything, from the master chronicler of our heart’s hidden desires.
WOW! If this isn't a book to brag about I don't know what is... I started it late last night. Never did I anticipate I would be closing the book at 1am!

The Party by Tessa Hadley is a short well-observed novel about the coming of age of two young women and the relationship between the sisters.

'The Party' is a short, nicely written novella, set in post-war Bristol. Two young women, sisters, meet a pair of wealthy young men at a party. A week later they are invited to another party by the same young men, which they attend rather reluctantly, and find it marks the beginning of their true adult lives.

Hadley writes well - her style flows well and she is observant and able to create interesting and likeable characters. As a sampler of her writing ability, 'The Party' is a decent advert for any longer books of hers. However, it doesn't stand up very strongly in its own right. I didn't find it very impactful or memorable, and at the end I was left wondering what the point was. I know books don't have to have a point, but for me I find I enjoy them more if they do. What was Hadley trying to do - what was she trying say or emotion was she trying to evoke in the reader? It didn't shock me, surprise me, make me laugh, make me cry, make me angry, teach me something new, or make me consider a different viewpoint. It's quite possible for a shorter length of story to do that, although harder than in a novel, but this one doesn't.

It's possible that it is very deep, or allegorical, and I have missed the double meaning. But somehow I don't feel as though it is. I didn't mind reading it, but I don't feel like I took anything away from it and I doubt I'll remember I read it at all a year from now. If you prefer books that don't mess with your emotions, it might be a good choice, but if you like your fiction to have an impact, it's not the best choice.

A short novella following the night of two sisters who attend a party, this story started out strong. The writing was rich and atmospheric and I enjoyed the cast of characters. The second half of the book, however, is what let me down. The sisters visit a mansion, owned by men they met at the initial party, and chaos ensues. There wasn’t much in terms of plot or characterisation, and where the writing was rich in the first half, it was a little underdone in the second half. Still, a quick and entertaining read.