Monday, June 23, 2008

The Master Bedroom by Tessa Hadley (a review)

The Master Bedroom: A Novel
4.5 out of 5: 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.

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