An Experiment in Leisure

by Anna Glendenning

"A dizzying yet powerful read." —Claire-Louise Bennet t , author, Pond

A sharp and witty debut novel that is at once a tender portrait of youth and an exploration of the emotional costs of social mobility, the possibilities of leaving and returning, the meanings of work and the ways a woman learns to love women

'Can I get a refund?' I asked the bus driver.
'You taking the piss, love?'

It's January 2015, and Grace is supposed to have what she wants. She's swapped West Yorkshire for north London, her accent carefully edited and with a Cambridge degree under her belt. Her friends drink beer out of artful tins. She makes flat whites for people with berets. She's found a psychoanalyst.

But this fantasy of metropolitan cool is turning out to be more costly than she thought, and Grace is running out of credit. Painfully adrift from her mother and twin sister and trying desperately both to forget her roots and disown her ambition, she's lost and confused in the face of complicated crises of identity, class, sex and geography. She finds herself fleeing up and down a country on the verge of an intractable schism, and begins to reckon with her own divisions. Can she find a life amid these contradictions? Can she remember how to love?
 

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Contemporary

304 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2022

Reviews

[Sophy H · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This is a tough one to review.

Whilst the writing here does not lack quality, it is very abstract. There is a story there somewhere, cobbled along between Northern shame, educational embarrassment, family dysfunction, possible psychosomatic symptoms of anxiety and questioning sexuality.

For a fiction, this book asks more questions than it answers. Is that a good thing? Hmm I'm not sure, I just felt as if it was a fiction that I wouldn't return to or re-read so maybe not.

[Ellie Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Issy Fleming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Painfully relatable at times, but not sure I really understood what it was trying to say by the end.

[Pien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

some of my thoughts:
- this author loves talking about “weeing” and everytime i read “weed”, i was confused
- the style was at times too abstract. making it nearly impossible to follow who, what, where, when.
- the extreme focus on material objects and all the symbolism attached to them creates a bit of a cultural barrier. or maybe it doesn’t make sense for british people either. unclear.
- all the characters have a cat. pro.

i did really enjoy the ruminations on labour, friendship, and family dynamics. i wish i understood more of the references. writing was also funny!

[Lulufrances · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up on a whim in Foyles because the painting on the cover caught my eye (nothing cooler than a still-life featuring weetabix and toast and a moleskine) and I was looking for books that could prolong my trip to London via being set there.
This definitely did help with that, despite being mostly set in Yorkshire too – but mostly it was just so, so British in essence and honestly I wonder if readers that aren't English (or half-English as is my case) will get most of the subtle little nuances and references.

For me it was a very intriguing read and I loved the utterly specific style of writing Anna Glendenning has. Some readers call it abstract, but it didn't really register as that for me, more a stream of consciousness at times (love that).

I wanted to know more about the family dynamics and especially about whatever happened between Grace and her twin Rebecca; maybe that's what was meant re abstract, a lot of background stuff just alluded to and not overly explained.
Could have read more of it – always a good sign.

[Chinen Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun flow of conscience style narration but honestly couldn't tell you what was happening half the time

[Kaitlin Pekin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure how I felt about this book. For a short book it took me ages to get through. I felt the writing style was very jumbled and jumped around the story line. Also I didn’t realise that Rebecca and Rachel were different people. I would say the last 100 pages were cute the rest I wouldn’t bother.

[QUYNH NGUYEN · Rating 3 out of 5]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
it was good but it could have been great

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Started out finding this one way too abstract in the writing style to get any sense of what was actually happening. But by halfway through the book I was much more invested in the character and her story, and it is very funny.

[Checkie Hamilton · Rating 1 out of 5]

An Experiment in Leisure is about a twenty-something-year-old named Grace moving to London from Yorkshire to make her own way in the world. I picked it up as a comforting read to accompany my own move to London and boy was that a misjudgement. It was the antithesis of a comforting, relatable or even enjoyable reading experience.

The book touches on themes of class, politics, sexuality and the state of modern day Britain although the writing style is so abstract that none of these themes are explored in a meaningful way or with an ounce of depth. For instance, Grace’s father dies early on in the novel but beyond a mention to her mother of the incident to explain away her bad mood this enormous event is glossed over and not mentioned again in the novel. Similarly, it is suggested that Grace has a challenging and fraught relationship with her mother or sister although this is never explored and we as readers see them being nothing but nice which is very confusing. All the other characters are barely fleshed out but mentioned in a way that assumes a certain level of background knowledge making parts of the novel very difficult to follow.

This was a really disappointing read that frankly I wish I’d never picked up.

[Rebecca Rogerson · Rating 3 out of 5]

i picked up this book in the library purely because i liked the cover and because it was set in leeds & london, two cities i happen to have also lived in. pretty good stuff (clever writing) but it took far too long for the gay storyline to kick in

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

There are some great pages in here, but overall the way this story was told just didn’t work for my brain.

[n1c0wboy · Rating 3 out of 5]

the rising action was a temper tantrum when the narrator dropped an avocado.

[Eems · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really had a hard time getting used to the writing style of this book. At first that frustrated me but when i made peace with the fact that i sometimes couldn't follow what was going on; it was actually quite enjoyable.

[Jill Westerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was initially drawn to this book as in many ways Grace’s story mirrors my own, albeit many years later. She is born in the West Riding of Yorkshire, leaves home for university and then moves to London where she mixes with a trendy crowd but feels out of place and lost. She is now set apart and slightly estranged from her mother and sister and we see her yearnings and struggles to find her place, to live and to love as she travels up and down the country. I particularly enjoyed her descriptions of Sheffield, a city I know well, and her feelings of displacement, as her accent has shifted and she feels self-conscious using the Yorkshire phrases of her youth, something I recognise.

But there is more to the novel than my personal nostalgia. The narration is pacy and compelling, mirroring the narrator’s rapid shifts in mood and thought. It is moving to travel with Grace and see her learning to accept herself and love herself and others.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.

[Dolly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Categorically one of the worst books I’ve ever read. It has some minor merit (hence the 1 star) in the vaguely heartwarming relationship between the protagonist and Ginger towards the end. Unfortunately this is the only remotely plausible part of this book. I mean I was literally shouting ‘no one has conversations like this’ at the book at points. Especially her interactions with her mother. I mean who behaves like that? The bit where she goes to Costa Coffee on Boxing Day (who does that?) and starts crying for no reason? The bit where the twin incomprehensibly goes round to the mothers at 2am and she can hear them loudly slagging her off and the twin says ‘look what you’ve done to her?’. I genuinely feel like the author put ‘what do young women do/talk about’ into ChatGPT and this is what came up. Disastrous

[Lara Farrell]

This isn’t a particularly easy read but one I really enjoyed. You’re dropped immediately into Grace’s world and it takes a little while to orient yourself but I really loved getting to know her. As a fellow northern Oxbridge English graduate I could empathise with a lot of what Grace goes through and I’m not sure how accessible some aspects of her almost stream of consciousness thoughts might be otherwise. Nonetheless, a very enjoyable read that I would recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[abi slade · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5⭐️

pros ✅
- liked the rambling nature of it because it felt like i was really in grace’s head
- liked that on more than one occasion she was visiting / staying in places that i know well

cons ❌
- sometimes the rambling start to get pretty confusing, for example, the opening of the book was just a lot of a jumble that i had to piece together retrospectively
- really hard to get into. everything felt too disconnected and meaningless
- FAR TOO MANY CHARACTERS (& i didn’t care about any of them!)

[Ayla · Rating 1 out of 5]

I DNF'ed it after 52 pages. The stream of consciousness way of writing did just not work for me. I don't understand who the main character is, who the side characters are, and what is happening. The blurb sounded so promising, so it is a shame that in my opinion the writing style does not achieve to convey the same message.

[Channelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm this is a tricky one to talk about. I began reading without knowing anything about it, not even reading the blurb on the back, which usually suits me well but in this case, I think knowing the context would've helped a lot (I only looked at it once I was about 1/3 through the book).

The cool thing about this book is the writing style. It really feels like a stream of consciousness. It allows you to really connect with the main character in a way I've never quite felt before. It doesn't feel like storytelling in the usual first person POV. It really feels like you're there, you're in their head, getting the unfiltered, real and raw experiences. Little details in this way were quite cool.

The problem for me, I suppose, is that I personally (just me personally!!) struggled to relate to the main character and the self-destructive behaviour. I didn't particularly enjoy the middle part of the book, but by the end, I felt it was redeeming and worth the journey.

Also, as someone who lives halfway across the world from England, so many products and references were lost on me. I think this book would be much more enjoyable for a reader who is familiar with England.

3 stars because I really respect this fresh style, and the writing is great, but it did become difficult to read for me at times. Still, I got through it and having finished it, I am satisfied!

[Melissa Surgey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an odd book and not at all what I expected but very enjoyable and engrossing. The writing style feels a little stilted and abstract but it almost feels like this is deliberate and enhances how the author want to portray Grace, who comes across as a typical modern day twenty-something stuck post-university (think no sense of career direction, grim houseshare, moving to London in pursuit of success) who is quite detached from her life and seems to derive no real joy from it. I actually loved how Grace was written and found it a palate cleanser that cuts through a lot of millennial women extreme tropes. She is neither a heartless, workaholic career woman nor is living a completely messy, chaotic (and frankly unrealistic) life. I thought her ambivalence towards her current life and some degree of detachment made her more realistic, and parts are quite funny in a very dry, dark witty kind of way. If you need a lot of plot points to enjoy a book, I suspect this isn't for you as it's more a series of vignettes that almost stand alone. A really refreshing take on millennial experiences that cuts through tired tropes - has definitely piqued my interest in what the author does next.

[Mohamad Fattal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very refreshing. Glendenning’s writing created such a strong voice for Grace - the novel’s protagonist (I’ve featured a few of her symbols here - her Moleskine notebook and a bowl of dry Weetabix)
It is written with a mix of short, sharp sentences and stream of consciousness moments. Grace is troubled, missing something her life, and she travels up and down England in an attempt to find it.
She battles with her relationships with her twin sister and her mother, and with her sense of self. Will Grace be able to find what she’s missing?
At times, things were so short that I struggled a little with what was actually going on. But come the middle, I grasped the plot and was able to follow it a lot better.
This book is definitely engaging and a good, ‘modern feeling’ read!!

[Anastasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Nobody would likely care to be reminded of the febrile mess of twenties life they’d all now managed to break out of.” Similarly to other reviews of this book, I’m not entirely sure what it was trying to do. It touched on themes; undiscovered sexuality, childhood trauma, breaking into the world as someone from a working-class background, but every time I thought it was going somewhere it would go in a different direction. It was a decently easy read albeit because of the lack of substance, but I did find myself relating to the messiness of the protagonist on more than one occasion and not just because I’m also 23 and live in Sheffield.

[Cerys · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought this book would be relatable, some parts were, the rest was not.

The prose was too abstract for my liking (my fault should have checked before I bought it), and I think for a story like this it didn’t really suit it because you couldn’t really grasp anything meaningful about the majority of the characters.

There were some pages that were decent. The parts with the mum were depressing.

It was entertaining to a certain degree though so that’s why it’s 2 stars. Wouldn’t recommend or read again (although will be giving to my friends to see if they can pull anything more out of this than I managed to).

[M O’Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant read. As a nearing 30 year old woman living ‘down south’ from where she was born I relate to A LOT of this novel - from having to modify my accent to my mum also always saying ‘Costa’s’ rather than just ‘Costa’ 😂

But you don’t just need to see yourself in the characters of this novel. You can enjoy the excellence of the prose and the dialogue, perfectly taking you on the ride of Grace’s character arc.

[Della Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this would have been a 3-star read - the style takes a bit of getting used to - but as a Leeds to London via Oxford migrant (albeit of a different generation) I found some of the linguistic observations really enjoyable and loved the sense of moving between two worlds and never fully belonging in either.

[Caprice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would have been best as a tv show. It’s a lot of present tense rhetoric. I did find aspects quite funny and charming but I couldn’t finish the book because the overall story line felt lacklustre with no real plot. Overall, it was okay as a contemporary piece of fiction but it fell a bit short for me.

[Hannah Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stream of consciousness style of this book made for a really interesting read. At first it felt abstract but once I knew who everyone was, I was hooked.

The main character was very relatable. There were bits that made me laugh out loud and other bits which I turned over in my head for days afterwards. Would recommend but just be prepared to not know what's going on at first!

[Dorian Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this book, took me a bit of time to get used to the writing style but i found the character of Grace relatable. I think that's what made this enjoyable. As the writing is quite abstract, if you are unfamiliar with the setting and type of people this book involves i imagine you'd be quite lost and confused. Would recommend xxx

[Romy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a bit mediocre and the main character was a bit mediocre and there wasn’t much of a coherent storyline but i think that’s a part of the beauty of it. I felt like I related a lot to Grace and see my life going in a similar way to hers (yes i’m calling myself mediocre) which is comforting to read. It was a very realistic fiction book, almost non fiction…