Sunstroke and Other Stories

by Tessa Hadley

The Past has shipped over 41k and The London Train over 43k

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Womens, British Literature, Literary Fiction, 21st Century

154 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2007

About the author

Tessa Hadley is the author of Sunstroke and Other Stories, and the novels The Past, Late in the Day and Clever Girl. She lives in Cardiff, Wales, and teaches literature and creative writing at Bath Spa University.

Reviews

[Linda Gaines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still think Hadley is the best writer out there. From the title short story, where adultery is envisioned, to the final story when mother and daughter remember the past differently, she takes the reader in just a few pages into feelings so familiar.
Her descriptions are wonderful: "It's a summer day with the same blue sky and unserious puffs of creamy clouds as on the postcards....There are a lot of people holidaying ..in pink shorts and sunglasses, with troops of children, they buy locally made ice cream..."
I felt like I was there.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) Not quite as strong as Bad Dreams and Other Stories, but the distinct atmosphere is still there. Each story pivots on a particular relationship: A mother fends off her son’s spurned lover; a teenager helps her older sister recover from a miscarriage; a woman hosts her former brother-in-law. Several stories revisit the same place or situation decades later. Claudia flirted with Graham when he was a teenager and she a grown woman; in “Phosphorescence” he tests whether there’s still any power in that connection 25 years later. In “A Card Trick” Gina goes back to a writer’s home she visited with family friends 25 years ago and reflects on how life has failed to live up to expectations. In “Matrilineal” Nia shares the comfort of a bed with her mother twice: once as a little girl the night they run away from her father, and again 40 years later in a hotel in New York City.

My two favorites were “The Surrogate,” in which a young woman falls for her professor – and for a pub customer who happens to look like him; and “Exchanges,” about two women on the cusp of middle age whose lives have diverged.

[Yulia · Rating 2 out of 5]

i picked this up after enjoying a story of hers ("married love") in the new yorker, but after reading this and finding an earlier version of the same "new" story already published, i've come to believe she has nothing to say and rewrites this nothing often. wow, that sounds harsh. i just meant to say this book was a disappointment.

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t read a lot of short stories anymore, and so I tend to forget the particular pleasures they impart to the reader. When done well, the short story can pull the reader in by the first paragraph; there isn’t that long process of ‘getting to grips’ with the storyline that is inevitable with a longer and more complicated narrative. There should also be some kind of epiphany, I think; a moment or insight on which the story turns. Paradoxically, there is something about the short story that can feel even more complete than the novel. Perhaps because its focus is so much narrower, one doesn’t feel the same sense of loose ends and the extraneous detail.

I reached for this book because I wanted something to read at the Highgate Ladies Pond during the longest spell of hot weather in England’s recent history. Something light; something that didn’t require a huge commitment; something that I wouldn’t regret being ruined by water and suncream. The title, I will admit, was also a draw. Nearly all of the stories in this collection are set in summer, or turn on a memory of an important incident that took place in summer. The past’s influence on the present is a theme in many of the stories, and Hadley’s accomplished movement between time periods gives her stories an expansiveness and a sort of echoing effect much larger than their actual length. Is summer the most nostalgic of the seasons? I think so. Does it inspire moments of greater freedom, of moral laxity, of ‘madness’ even? I would argue that that is probably the case.

Most of the stories involve love and/or passion, and Hadley does ‘date’ herself (but in an interesting way) by setting many of the stories in the 1970s - a time when male/female dynamics were undergoing a great change and sexual politics were at the forefront of culture (as in the current moment). There were many lines which struck me, and although this collection was published in this century (2007) it often has the feeling of a period piece.

”People who meet Helen think she must have been something important, a broadcaster or a designer, although actually what she has mostly done in her life is that old-fashioned thing: being an attractive and interesting woman.”. (from Matrilineal)

”There was something formally beautiful and powerful and satisfying in it: that scene of a woman putting her happiness into a man’s hands. Beside it, all the other, better, kinds of power that women had nowadays seemed, just for one floundering moment, second best.”. (from A Card Trick)

And my favourite:
”In truth she had had a stormy relationship with her parents, and used to think of her mother’s domesticated life as thwarted and wasted. But she had learned to love the invisible work, the life that fell away and left no traces. This was how change happened, always obliquely to the plans you laid for it, leaving behind as dead husks all the preparations that you nonetheless had to make in order to bring it about.”. (from The Enemy)

[Valerie.palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in the middle of this one right now and I have to take a break in between each story because they all pack such a wallup. Wow. Hadley might be my new favorite author. Highly recommended!

[Nick Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

A set of quietly interesting short stories - both beautifully observed and beautifully described, this was a pleasure. The tales seemed to focus on regret and reminiscence, on domestic conflict and women dissatisfied with relationships, on childhood experiences. Though in a couple of instances I was slightly frustrated that the author didn't develop the narrative and left it a little unresolved or underexplored, I know this was a stylistic choice. The title story, 'Phosphorescence' and 'The Surrogate' stood out, and I thought the closing tale 'Matrilineal' finished off this slim volume sensitively.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich möchte mehr Kurzgeschichten lesen. Ich möchte mehr Tessa Hadley lesen!

Wie schnell sie es schafft, einen in eine Welt zu ziehen, die einen nach wenigen Zeilen schon vertraut vorkommt. Besonders die letzten Geschichten haben mich sehr gepackt. Mit ihren verschrobenen Junge-Frau-Charakteren habe ich mich sehr verbunden gefühlt. Ich fand interessant (und verwirrend), wie das Thema Consent vs. Übergriff behandelt wurde.

[Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinarily accomplished collection of stories with no weak or even mediocre links and two or three classic tales--and I say this as someone who typically is less interested in short story collections. I tend to clumsily divide writers into those who plot or think well and those who write well--naturally better writers do both. Hadley is obviously one of these. Each story is supremely well-conceived; the prose is classic. For me, reading her stories felt like one of those instances where you come along and find a writer at just the right moment, where their talents and interests chime perfectly with your preoccupations as a reader. Many, most of the stories here seemed perfect to me, with loads of quotable, smart, beautiful lines. For instance, in "Phosphorescence" (a story about an older woman's unconsummated flirtation with a teenager): "Then the next day she went, and he suffered. For the first time like an adult, secretly." Or from the conclusion of "The Enemy": "This was how change happened, always obliquely to the plans you laid for it, leaving behind as dead husks all the preparations that you nonetheless had to make in order to bring it about." Or half a dozen other gloriously rendered moments that resonate at the level of the sentence but chime mightily in terms of the story's ideas. (The line quoted from "The Enemy," occurs at the end of a man's visit to an old friend, a sister-in-law, who was once a rival and comrade in arms in movements for social change in the sixties--that there is unresolved sexual tension layered over the moment only makes the political and social resonances all the more powerful.) Hadley avoids the 'surprise' revelation form of concluding her stories, and yet each one feels as if the characters (and the reader) clamber up to a risky ledge after a long climb to sweatily appreciate the hard-won view, however compromised with mist or tears. She is also a very generous writer, in the sense that her characters, while sometimes observed from an ironic distance, are never treated contemptuously or held up as mere examples. The opening tale which gives the volume its title is a case in point. The story warmly, slowly includes the reader in the web of relations obtaining between Rachel and Janie, two mothers with children on holiday with their husbands near Bristol (many of the stories take place in Wales or in transit to and from Cambridge, interestingly). A third party, Kieran, possibly interested in Rachel, shows up. The story brilliantly and economically works through a whole series of revelations between the characters brought about by this unexpected visit, effortlessly throwing off seven or eight lovely reflections on friendship, rivalry, parenthood, child-rearing and the single male along the way. As in this first story, most of the important relationships in the volume are between women: friends, sisters, daughters and mothers. If men come off a little less rounded here, it is not because Hadley cannot render them well (see her wonderful portraits of sensitive sons in "Mother's Son" and "Phosphorescence" for example), but because she has other preoccupations. She is deeply concerned with getting to the heart of the matter in her characters, even if they sometimes find it takes a long time to come back to a place where something happened to reach that truth. Indeed, many of the tales feature women returning in memory to a time or place and opening themselves up for the first time to something they had missed. To me, this seems the essence of generosity in a writer: allowing the characters the humanity to come to a place again and know it and themselves for the first time. This is a jaw-droppingly good book.

[Katrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining and profound. It looks like I'm going to love anything written by Tessa Hadley. The voice is sublime--somehow both unsentimental yet also deeply empathetic. She is never cliched even when dealing with topics that could veer easily into pat psychological territory. With a few strokes she paints a picture so vividly, whether of a character or a setting.

[Candice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good collection. Problem is that I'm reading Hadley like stuffing handfuls of popcorn in my mouth...I'm sort of obsessed and need to give it a rest for a while.

[tuiskuaurora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aika tylsä ja tämmöset short stories ei oo iha ehk mun juttu

[Mrs]

Enjoyed.
Brief insights into the lives of women in different stages of their lives, and their relationships. Perceptive and thought provoking.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

with the exception of a few lines in some stories that gutted me… idk. I see the technical skill but they didn’t really emotionally hit me. Very reserved. loved “The Surrogate” though

[Electra · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai découvert cet auteure galloise par hasard sur Amazon (vous savez quand vous regardez un livre et il vous dit "les acheteurs de ce livre ont également regardé ces livres") et quelle bonne surprise ! Une qualité au niveau du style et du détail, et de la manière dont Hadley réussit à reproduire l'esprit humain, les tracas, nos interrogations et surtout de ne jamais aller là où on l'attend.
Une analyse très fine de l'esprit.

[Peter Swanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t read many books of short stories, and here is a good example as to why. The writing, characters and narrative here are all top notch. But just as I’m getting immersed in each story… it ends. I know that in this genre, often that’s the point. But I’m unfulfilled. She’s an excellent writer, however.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I previously read The Past and gave it 4 stars. Towards the end of the year I downgraded it to 3 stars against other things I'd read because the story seemed too inconsequential despite the quality of the writing. Her short stories though are brilliant. Small snapshots of lives but everything about them rings so true. Her description of a young woman's fantasies are just so real - and the review of them from middle age is poignant and clear eyed. It's a little book and even if you don't generally like short stories really worth the read.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gloriously insightful collection of stories of people dealing with their uncertainties as to how to behave towards others, of rehearsing scenarios as a means of avoiding making mistakes, and being better prepared for those who one wishes to impress in some way . Long past time I re-read her novels.

And having been lent the book . I enjoyed it so much I needed my own copy. Once again, thoroughly enjoyed. the theme often being 'never again will I do/ this activity, feel/behave in this way. Ten stories, all but a couple superb.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with most short story collections, the first ones are best. As the book winds on the stories start to get a little ragged around the edges, and Hadley's "agenda" (that sort of specifically British class self-consciousness socialist/'60s/feminist aesthetic) shows through unattractively. However, I found the title story, which ran in the New Yorker a few years back, almost unbearably touching and heartbreaking.

[RH Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her perception dazzles me.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best Hadley collection, but good. Lotsa passion in these stories (for life, for others), both thwarted and come to fruition. But unlike Hadley's novel Free Love, which I also just recently finished (I read them both in tandem for some reason), these pieces never lapse into melodrama, so Tessa signature genius of describing a particular place at a particular moment in time remains the dominant delightful flavor here. There's also a ton of beautiful rumination about is life going well and quickly enough.

Faves include....

"Matrilineal": "The adults are all poised for something momentous to happen to fill out the meaning of this transformation, anxious already in cse another year is slipping past without certainty, without anything becoming clear."

"The Surrogate": "Those are the years when a lot happens, when your life lurches across crucial transitions like a train hurtling across points at speed. It doesn't always feel like that at the time. At the time, you sometimes feel that life has slowed down to a frozen stillness. There's no tedium like the tedium of twenty. But all the while you are in fact flying fast into a future decide by a couple of accidental encounters or scraps of dreams."

"Exchanges" which astonishingly highlights anyone's ability to truly know anything about anyone else via a simple story about a jug and an egg

"The Enemy" which culminates in a lovingly prepared dinner for an unlikely two-some: "In her thirties she had resented furiously this disproportion between the time spent cooking and eating; it had seemed to her characteristic of women's work, exploitative and invisible and without lasting results. She had even given up cooking for awhile. These days she felt about it differently. The disproportion seemed part of the right rhythm of all pleasure: a long, difficult, and testing perparation for a few moments' consummation."

[Ebenmaessiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sunstroke": 10
- Has grown considerably in the aftermath, for both the perspicacity of its depiction of a certain parental ennui, as well as just the fine-tuned-ness of its emotional term. It’s nothing special, except that all of it is. Story: two women, early 30s, old friends, hang out at the English seaside with their families and husbands, while one discusses her realization that an old university friend seems to have feelings for her, and that she is excitedly considering the tryst, except that when he shows up at a family vacation, amidst a whole heap of sun stroke, we realize that the mind blasted by the heat, was actually the other friend, who, in a drunken walk home with the man, the other friend have been discussing, starts, kissing him and realizes this is something that she actually wants. The master stroke are the final pages, in which this man, now confronted with actual family, family life and domestic settlement, realizes that the escape into mundanity and normality he was mindlessly poking around for in his initial pursuit of the first friend, is not something he wants at all. We realize he’s done with the other friend at the exact time that we realize she is going to pursue him with full vigor.

"Mother's Son": 9
- Hadley's skill is in the easy and persuasive inhabiting of different types — demonstrated most impressively here in the back and forth between the exhausting Marxist historian of renown and his exhausted grad student mistress abt what to tell children about death. STORY: mother, when giving her son advice about his infidelities, reminisces about her own affair with the son's father.

[Olivia Loving · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ugh, I love Tessa Hadley so much.

I think it's because her books feel so pre-smartphone, pre-internet 80s/90s/00s, even though they've all been published within the last two decades. I’m sure it’s because she was trained as a writer in the 60s/70s/80s, then published late-ish. Her writing feels close to the center of life.

This book is a total hidden gem. Unfortunately, it's probably not read very much these days, since it's one of her earlier ones AND a short story collection. But there are SO MANY beautiful lines and paragraphs!

It made me think about a class I took in grad school. My professor (who is also my favorite author) said that every writer has a special talent, whether for the sentence, paragraph, or scene.

I think Tessa Hadley's specialty is the sentence. This one made me LOL:

"Caro had bought the trouser suit because her godmother -- whom she had adored as a little girl but had stopped visiting recently because of her views on trade unions and immigration -- had sent her twenty-one pounds for her twenty-first birthday."

So hilariously savage. I almost felt bad for Caro, reading it.

Hadley’s genius is seemingly effortless, and this is simply because it’s difficult to imagine how any other word would be a better fit. Her writing is fluid and readable, but within the 'simple' language, there's a very intentional ease.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

After attending an online discussion featuring Lily King, who has a book of short stories out, I checked out this book on her recommendation. I know I have read Hadley's stories in the New Yorker and I remember liking some and not liking others.
I think I really liked most of the stories in this collection; I remember only somewhat liking one.
Her writing is gorgeous and she captures the inner lives of her characters so well. What they are thinking when they are engaged in behaviors that mask their inner lives.
Many of the stories involve a time jump: something that happened when a character was young, then a leap into the future when they consider this event again. Or the characters are young women. Or older women, mothers. Occasionally a young man.
Most of the stories involve regret of some kind or longing for an earlier time, a kind of nostalgia or unease in reconsidering the past.
I picked this up with another collection of short stories also recommended by King. I stopped reading the other because I liked this collection so much better.
It was fun to get back to my habit of reading one short story each morning when I drink my coffee.
I highly recommend this book especially if you don't often read short stories or if you've been out of the habit.

[Shruti Vasave]

Damn they were not wrong about comparison being the thief of joy and stuff. Very good stories. Subjects, settings were of my interest and domain. Unfortunately, I picked up McGuane’s Cloudbursts (another short story collection). Picked it up originally because in my head the names looked like they should go together- sun stroke cloud bursts. Wrong decision. McGuane has a crazy range and maybe because of that I started feeling claustrophobic in the academic, affluent, feminine settings of these very well written stories. Anyway a good story is a good story. Whatever.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short stories about people getting into mildly interesting sexual difficulties regarding affairs, etc. I guess Hadley is a decent writer, and the premise of a fair few stories are interesting, but I just wasn’t left with any particular impression; the curse of merely decent short stories, and why I tend to avoid them.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never usually go for a short story so was fun to change it up, rlly enjoyed the writing style and thought the stories were bound together in a v interesting way/the growing sense of unease in domestic relationships was well done .. however just didn't love! A bit too slow + discursive at times for my liking

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7. I'm seeking out all her books. Almost as good as Married Love and Bad Dreams. Mostly great. Couldn't pinpoint what I didn't like quite as much.. Just a few stories felt a little bit blah, not as strong, but mostly really food.

[Steve Coates · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heard Curtis Sittenfeld read one of these stories, The Surrogate, on the New Yorker Fiction podcast and sought more of Tessa Hadley's work out. It's incredibly perceptive and bittersweet - such a talented writer.

[Amanda Larkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful collection. Characters who are annoying, stricken, hilarious, damaged, and lovable but certainly never boring. I like the narrators’ cool and detached forensic level of observational details. Really enjoyed this.

[Braeden Udy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, wip-smart, lush, empathic writing. These stories are mostly about women and mothers negotiating gender roles and expectations, taboos and tendernesses. Hadley will be remembered as one of the greats.