2013 Story 134
Cleaning house a bit tonight, I found one issue of The New Yorker sitting around, with a Tessa Hadley story in it.
134. CLEVER GIRL by Tessa Hadley, from the June 6, 20122 issue of The New Yorker. It's been quite a while since I've read a story from The New Yorker, and even longer since I've read anything by Tessa Hadley. This story, of a young girl forced to move with her mom and step-father to a rural/newly-suburban community and face changes at home and in school, strikes me as classic Hadley: young female focal character with a strong voice, not very affluent surroundings, and an internal realization sparked by an external, but not necessarily large, event. I enjoyed 99% of this story: the girl's voice, her recognition that things change and people change, the series of small events that lead to her self-realization/actualization, and most especially the little "tree worshipping 'cult'" she starts with her new neighbor/friend. That last is a nice touch that lingers through the story and puts a fine point on the nature of imagination but also of relationships with peers. Someone has to take the lead / be the top dog, and it is the only relationship in which the narrator can take that role. The 1% or less that I didn't like? The final several lines, which felt to me unnecessary and almost "smack the reader over the head with the point of the story," something I'm not accustomed to from Hadley.
134. CLEVER GIRL by Tessa Hadley, from the June 6, 20122 issue of The New Yorker. It's been quite a while since I've read a story from The New Yorker, and even longer since I've read anything by Tessa Hadley. This story, of a young girl forced to move with her mom and step-father to a rural/newly-suburban community and face changes at home and in school, strikes me as classic Hadley: young female focal character with a strong voice, not very affluent surroundings, and an internal realization sparked by an external, but not necessarily large, event. I enjoyed 99% of this story: the girl's voice, her recognition that things change and people change, the series of small events that lead to her self-realization/actualization, and most especially the little "tree worshipping 'cult'" she starts with her new neighbor/friend. That last is a nice touch that lingers through the story and puts a fine point on the nature of imagination but also of relationships with peers. Someone has to take the lead / be the top dog, and it is the only relationship in which the narrator can take that role. The 1% or less that I didn't like? The final several lines, which felt to me unnecessary and almost "smack the reader over the head with the point of the story," something I'm not accustomed to from Hadley.