After the Funeral and Other Stories

Starred review from May 8, 2023
Hadley (Free Love) proves herself a magician of short fiction with this wonderful collection featuring characters whose epiphanies shift their conception of their lives. Many of the stories feature POV switches, coincidental encounters, and other literary devices that might not have worked if Hadley weren’t so good at capturing moments of startling strangeness. In “Cecelia Awakened,” a teenager travels with her parents to Florence, Italy, where she realizes they’re simply tourists—at once outlandish and utterly unoriginal. While checking into their hotel, she picks up a flash of disdain from the manager directed at her father (“It was as if Cecelia had heard distinctly, in a moment when no one else was actually speaking, idle thought: Fussy little man”). In “Dido’s Lament,” a Londoner named Lynette quite literally bumps into her ex-husband, Toby, on the subway. A power play ensues when Toby invites Lynette to visit his new house. After Lynette leaves, Hadley shifts to Toby’s perspective, where in his shame he has an unsettling thought about his new family and success. “The Other One” follows a girl whose grief over her father’s death via car accident becomes complicated when it comes out that he was driving with his mistress and her female friend. Many years later, at a dinner party, the girl (now a woman) believes she has bumped into the mistress’s friend, the eponymous “other one,” toward whom she feels oddly warm. Readers will marvel over these twisty and masterly tales.

October 1, 2023

Hadley's (Free Love) latest short-story collection examines the regrets, missed connections, and pathos of individuals reassessing their pasts and confronting perplexing new visions of themselves. Subtly yet precisely performed by actor Abigail Thaw, a frequent narrator of Hadley's works, many stories feature changing worldviews and self-revelations; "Funny Little Snake" follows Valerie, whose simmering resentment at her stepdaughter's visit turns to unbridled compassion when she sees the appalling circumstances the child came from. Hadley's knowing gaze is evident in the telling of "Cecelia's Awakening," which portrays a teenager on a family vacation who suddenly sees her myopic and hopelessly unsophisticated parents as others might. "Dido's Lament" exposes the chasms of almost willful misunderstanding that fuel even long-ended relationships, as ex-spouses maintain facades of happiness and stability while trying not to address uncomfortable truths about themselves. Listeners may be surprised by the stories' abrupt conclusions, signaled by Thaw with a gentle upward lilt that suggests continuation rather than closure. These uncertain endings are awkward but full of meaning, conveying the sense that there are no resolutions, happy or otherwise, and that life moves implacably forward. VERDICT A gorgeously narrated collection of shimmering, quietly powerful stories. For fans of Lorrie Moore's Collected Stories.--Sarah Hashimoto

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