Late in the day a novel

by Tessa Hadley

Hardcover, 2019

Call number

FIC HAD

Collection

Fiction

Genres

General Fiction

Publication

New York, NY : Harper, [2019]

Description

"Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been friends since they first met in their twenties. Thirty years later, Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer's evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia: she is at the hospital. Zach is dead. In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach, with his generous, grounded spirit, was the irreplaceable one they couldn't afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. But instead of loss bringing them closer, the three of them find over the following months that it warps their relationships, as old entanglements and grievances rise from the past, and love and sorrow give way to anger and bitterness"--… (more)

Subjects

User reviews

LibraryThing member viviennestrauss

This book was just okay, I was expecting more based on a friend's recommendation. I realized too late that I just didn't really care what happened to any of the characters.

7 more

LibraryThing member ccayne

What happens when the equilibrium of long term relationships is shattered by an unexpected death. Two couples, each with children, who have known each other for decades and are a bit too enmeshed in each other's lives come apart when the balance is disrupted. I found i was very involved in

wondering how it would all end and rooting for Christine who lost the most even though her spouse was not the one who died. I found this to be a compelling look at marriage and friendship, how it survives or fails and what comes next.

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LibraryThing member PattyLouise

Late In The Day
By
Tessa Hadley

What it's all about...

Alex and Christine...Zachary and Lydia...are couples who have been friends for a long long time. Zachary dies suddenly and the lives of the three remaining friends become chaotic. Lydia can not bear to be alone so she moves in with Alex and

Christine. Her belongings are everywhere...she is a bit out of control and one night she even crawls into bed with Christine and Alex. Rather than friends pulling together during a tragedy these friends seem to be falling apart. Lydia breaks all boundaries.

Why I wanted to read it...

The summary for this book drew me in. These friends were friends for a long time. Before they were married they even dated each other’s husbands. They each had unique personalities. They seemed to make far too many allowances for each other’s odd behaviors.

What made me truly enjoy this book...

I loved reading about each different personality. Christine and Lydia went to elementary school together. They couldn’t be more different and yet they were besties for a long time. The lives of their children were also affected by the actions of these parents. The author does an excellent job of making the reader feel for each of these characters. I felt sympathy, shock, anger and frustration. My least favorite character will always be Lydia. I felt tons of empathy for Christine. I liked the way the author completed this story. The ending felt just right.

Why you should read it, too...

I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss and Amazon. It was my choice to read it and review it.

Fondly...Patty

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LibraryThing member kcshankd

This is another installment on Indiespensable that I wouldn't have otherwise read, and really was anxious to be done with it. That said, this is a sweet little novel, and I was interested through the end to find out how our characters sorted out their experiences with Zach's death.

LibraryThing member flourgirl49

Annoying book filled with thoroughly unlikable, selfish characters. Perhaps this is just a quirk of mine, but I do not like it when dialogue is not surrounded by quotation marks!

LibraryThing member brookiexlicious

Sadly this book was like a cold cup of tea that’s been left on the counter too long. I was initially drawn to the premise of friends coming together after the death of someone in their group. But as the story wound on, I became less and less invested in these characters and their story. I was

honestly ready to have this book become yet another DNF (do not finish). The prose and pace of the book seemed to drag on and on, and it took me much longer than I wanted to finish this. Towards the end I was so bored and eager to end this story that I ended up skimming some paragraphs.⁣
If you enjoy languid stories about complicated relationships and in an English setting, this is the book for you

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LibraryThing member arosoff

Tessa Hadley's writing is beautiful, but as a novel it's a disappointment. It feels too much like another generic domestic drama featuring well off Londoners. There's nothing that lifts it out of a well trodden road.

LibraryThing member camharlow2

Zachary and Alex were best friends at school, as were Chris and Lydia. In later life, after brief relationships between Alex and Lydia and Zachary and Chris, Alex married Chris and Zachary married Lydia. The four remained close friends, but around 30 years later this is all disrupted when Zachary

suddenly dies. In Tessa Hadley’s sensitive contemporary novel, she explores the changes that this brings about as well as looking at the couples’ earlier relationships. This reveals a fascinating portrait of modern life for some, as their friendship waxes and wanes over the course of time and makes for a wholly engaging novel as it explores and contrasts how the four change and develop but still retain much of their character from their earlier lives.

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