Richly drawn in its intimacy with sexual inuendo building tension throughout, it kept me engaged from start to finish. I was pleasantly surprised as you can not really judge a book by the title. ( )

Boring ( )

Kate Flynn, a London academic, has decided to abandon her life in the city, and has moved back to the Cardiff of her youth. The move back is a difficult one for Kate; she is bored and lonely. She reaches out to an old friend, David, who is currently having problems with this own marriage, and simultaneously starts a relationship with Jamie, David's eldest son.
I requested this book because I was intrigued by the idea, but I never really felt as though Hadley followed through on the premise. If I hadn't have been reading the novel for review, it is likely I would have abandoned it somewhere around page 50. Although I'm glad I persevered and finished the novel, unfortunately, it didn't grab my attention and demand to be read - it took me a long time to get through it. I didn't particularly like any of the characters in the novel, but did find Kate interesting, particularly her relationship with her mother.
I intend to seek out other Tessa Hadley novels; friends have long recommended Accidents in the Home as a great read. If you are new to Hadley's work, however, I'm not sure this is the place to start. ( )

I definitely had to push myself to finish this book. I'm not sure why I did. The main character, Kate, returns to her childhood home to care for her aging mother, leaving behind her career and life in London. From the beginning, Kate is self-absorbed, caustic and generally unlikeable. Somehow these qualities attract her best friend's brother and his son. Her sexual relationship with the under-age son is odd (and illegal in the U.S.). The ending was quite surprising to me; at long last, her arrogance and disregard for everyone else leave her alone with her problems and, worst of all, herself. ( )

I wasn't able to read this book the first try around, so I read several others in between and finally picked it up again. I can't way I would reccomend this slow-moving novel. The story lacked substance, strong characters and moving dialogue. I was diappointed. ( )

This book will not make a splash -- it's merely quietly well written and sparely told -- an old-fashioned kind of novel. To me, however, this was its greatest appeal. The main character, Kate, is a forbiddingly independent modern woman of a certain age who reveals unguessed depths as the story unfolds. Hadley brings real people to life in The Master Bedroom -- people who struggle with communicating, with feeling, with finding themselves in the emotional maelstrom of life. This book is like a calm sea that hides strong currents -- beware the undertow. ( )

I received this novel as part of Library Thing's Early Reviewers program and truthfully would have given up on it about halfway through if I'd just been reading it for myself. At first, I found it quite engaging -- witty, well-written dialogue and Kate, a main character whose eccentricities I thought would be entertaining throughout. But as I got further in, the plot seemed stagnant and I realized there wasn't much to like to about Kate or any of the other characters.

Another reviewer noted that Hadley didn't reveal enough about the other characters for readers to really get involved with them and I agree. Carol seemed likeable and I wanted to know more about her, but she was relegated to sidekick and just a convenience to getting David into the story. This novel is a quick read and the dialogue is very well-written. I found myself turning down the corners of a few pages so I could go back and re-read some of the best parts later. However, it isn't a novel that will stay with me or one that I'd keep in my library. ( )

i received this book through early reviewers. i loved this book! i was absolutely delighted by the unapologetically snarky heroine. i found the characters to be quite fresh and original. the story, delightfully, never went in any direction i thought it might go. and while it's not exactly a masterpiece of modern literature, it is thoroughly entertaining and original. ( )

Kate Flynn returns to her childhood home in Cardiff after many successful years in London to care for her aging mother. Jobless and lonely, she enters into a slow courtship with the married brother of her best friend, David, and then an affair with the man's teenage son.

Kate is aimless and careless, pretentious and prickly. Neither she nor David are willing to expose themselves by overtly declaring affection for one another. David's wife removes herself emotionally from their marriage, but refuses to explain why. Only young Jamie is willing to show emotion and commit himself to uncertainty.

This book, while tremendously well written, is not always easy to read. The characters are so intent on keeping themselves to themselves that even with the authorial voice giving us clues to their inner lives, they are difficult to get to know. Kate, especially, is so intent in presenting herself as charmingly eccentric, that she is blithely unaware of the feelings of others. ( )

I got this book from Early Reviewers here on Library Thing.
When I first started the book, I was completely enthralled by it, I was in love with Tessa Hadley's style of writing and the portrayal of her characters. But as the book wore on, I found myself quickly growing bored of it. The characters started lacking depth and the ending felt like a complete cop out, I felt like I was cheated out of a good ending. ( )

I received this book through the Early Reviewers program through LT. As I began to read I was immediately struck by the format. It read almost like poetry rather than a novel. As I generally like the syntax of British writers, I was immediately drawn in. Ms. Hadley has a wonderful grasp of the English language and the writing itself was lovely.

The plot involves a middle aged woman returning to her home town from London, to care for her ailing mother. While home she falls for a married friend. Through a series of errors in judgment she becomes involve too with his teen son.

As the story progressed however, I began to realize the plot was flat and boring, the characters and their actions predictable, and the ending left me shaking my head. It was almost as if the author wanted to depress me and then leave the story unfinished. All in all I was disappointed in what I had hoped would be a beautifully written tale, and a bit angry by the time I finished the sleepy little story. ( )

This book was sent to me as an advanced reading copy by Picador.

Overall, the writing prose style was quite enchanting; controlled, smooth, understated. There seemed great promise after the first few chapters introduced a 40 plus woman called Kate, retreating from London to the familly home in the countryside, ostensibly to look after her dementing mother. She falls for a married doctor and steps into a moral quagmire, entangling herself with the doctor’s son.

The atmosphere is set for an insightful exploration of relationships with an older woman, an unhappily married man and his alienated son. Characters are involved in symbolic acts reflecting loss, grief and distress. But no-one seemed to show any passion, any energy, any moral questioning. There was a listlessness about the scenes that I could not enjoy.

So I ended up putting the book down at the end, dissatisfied. The structure of the book did not hold up for me and the characters seemed to fade into the white of the last few chapter pages. Intensity between the characters seemed to be lacking. The events possibly reflected the reality of life, but it was not enough. There was something missing - not necessarily a plot, but rather a paucity of deeper meaning, actions without reactions, a blandness without emotion. By the end, I was getting annoyed, and the drudgery of the character’s lives made it feel a little like I was watching paint dry. This lack of tension between the characters made me feel unconnected and unsympathetic towards any of them.

Hadley's prose style is definitely talented and memorable. Perhaps the emotional flatness was generated to create an aura of realism and believability? But I like to get a feeling of involvement with the characters at some level as I read. It was all a bit infuriating – and I gave the book away right after reading it, which is unusual for me. ( )

The Master Bedroom is an intimate drama centered on a middle-aged woman who becomes romantically entangled with a married man and his son during the year she returns to her childhood home to care for her elderly mother. Hadley excels at describing the small details of human interactions (the handshake that lingers longer than necessary, the purposeful brush of contact, the subtle change of voice). There aren’t any soap operatic scenes in The Master Bedroom, but Hadley nevertheless creates a quiet kind of dramatic tension that quickly propels the plot. In addition to Hadley’s narrative finesse, her well-crafted prose makes The Master Bedroom a joy to read. Highly recommended.

This review also appears on my blog Literary License (short reviews, real opinions): litlicense.blogspot.com ( )

i started the master bedroom, hesitantly b/c i'd read other not so great reviews on a few other book sites, but i really really enjoyed it. the characters, while not exactly likable, were fascinating and real. the dialogue was snappy (i thought the lack of quotes would bother me but it didn't). i was prepared to dislike kate, who was entirely self centered and vain, yet she grew on me. i really enjoyed ms. hadley's writing, she envoked a sense of place very well. even tho some of the characters were less than appealing, she was able to convey their inner emotions, making them very human. i was, i'll admit, a little perplexed by suzie, not sure what was going on with her; in fact, i think her storyline was a little weak, but it did contribute to david's therefore serving a purpose. am looking forward to reading more of tessa hadley's work. p.s. i would agree with allisonmariecat's review, wherein she says the book description sounds "seamy" - it turns out to be anything but... ( )

The Master Bedroom by Tessa Hadley is the first book I've received through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. Oddly, I received the book on June 11, about six weeks after the book was available in paperback, and the copy I received was an actual trade paperback, not an ARC. At any rate, I selected several books and received this one, possibly the one book I was unsure I even wanted to read. The synopsis was intriguing, but in a Jerry Springer/train wreck sort of way: Bored Kate Flynn leaves her London academic job and returns to her childhood home to care for her mother. While she is there, a married childhood friend and his seventeen-year-old son "set about their parallel courtships" and "Kate cannot quite resist either man." This all sounds rather seamy, in (I am happy to say) a completely inaccurate way, and I was delighted at the whim that led me to request this book. Tessa Hadley is a gifted writer of lyrical, evocative prose who has crafted a novel (her third) that is touching, funny, and complex.

Kate is both sympathetic and infuriating in her midlife crisis. Hadley has drawn her as a woman who has come untethered; though she has taken a one-year leave of absence instead of quitting her job and let her flat instead of giving it up completely, there is a sense that these steps are just delaying the inevitable. Speaking to David, a public health doctor, she calls her academic life "a kind of dream, a mistake. A life lost in books. What an abyss of difference, between your usefulness and mine. How did I choose it: this play life? I should have been a nurse. We carelessly make one choice after another and our lives pile up." She is not always nice, to put it bluntly, and there were times I didn't like her. Though her purported reason for moving home to Wales is her aging mother, it's clear that her mother is a means of escape from a life she had thought she wanted. When she first comes home, she finds her mother asleep and nearly decides to drive back to London without waking her, and she can be sharp with her mother. She takes her childhood friend Carol (who should be nominated for sainthood) for granted. She throws a lavish party purely to spite the practical David and his wife, Suzie. She tells seventeen-year-old Jamie, who has fallen in love with her, that he's too young to be her friend. But despite all these flaws, or perhaps because they make her real, I hoped that she would find what she was looking for by the end. I was expecting, rather dejectedly, for the story to end without any meaning found, without the hollows of life being filled, and I was both surprised and satisfied by the ending. Kate remakes her life, but not in any trite way, nor in the way I had expected.

This is a quiet book, with many small movements rather than a single dramatic action. Hadley's prose is well-suited to the story (or rather, stories, as the subplots share a dance floor with Kate's midlife crisis, even if they don't cut in), with simple, accurate language, like this description of her reunion with David: "They were falling into a pattern of friendship that had been, before Kate came back to live in Cardiff, exactly her idea of the sort of thing that would evolve in a place like this between grown-up cultured people" and elegant description, as when she first arrives at home: "The falling rain was blotted up overhead by the tall monkey puzzle tree or pattered onto the evergreen bushes. Below, on the lake, an invisible duck blundered splashily. A cold perfume of pines and bitter garden mulch seemed to her like the smell of the past itself." I marked dozens of pages where I found beautiful, lyrical prose or turns of phrase so elegant and perfect they made me smile. Hadley is funny, too. David's wife has fallen in with new hippie friends, and this is his parenthetical description of Menna and Neil's old van when they come to take Suzie camping: "its puttering filthy exhaust more polluting, surely, than anything they could make up for with their puritanical veganism." After Jamie cuts the grass, she tells him, "I think it looked better with the grass long. That grass was beautiful, it blew in the wind, it was blond like hair, the sound it made was like the sea. Now what does it look like? Stubbled and ugly, a poor cropped head." When Jamie looks crestfallen, she laughs.

The word "hollow" and variations on it appear too many times to count, and this is no coincidence. At forty-three, Kate feels hollow, that her life is empty. She doesn't take care of herself; she smokes and drinks, but rarely eats. The return to Wales doesn't immediately help; she reflects that "She had screwed up her own professional life as if it didn't matter and stepped outside it into where she was no one." She talks of being unmoored, of longing to be broken down and remade. Even literature is hollow: "Nothing written now has enough in it. I have to swap about, as soon as I get the hang of what they're up to; they're only ever up to one thing at a time." This is certainly not the case with this novel. In addition to Kate's search for meaning, we have glimpses into David and Suzie's failing marriage, Billie's failing health, Jamie's youthful search for meaning in his life (which makes for an interesting contrast to Kate's). This is the sort of book that I would have loved writing papers on in college. The story is unbelievably rich, and I could easily make this review pages and pages long, but I'll stop here. I'd recommend this book to anyone who looking for a rich, complex novel about the human experience, written in gorgeous, decadent prose.

http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/20... ( )

This is the story of a woman who leaves her career and apartment in London to take care of her ailing mother at home in Wales. Along the way she meets an old friend and his family; and becomes involved with both the friend and his son.

i was swept into the story more than I expected to be; and found the narrative plausible and not at all predictable. I love British novels generally, and this did not disappoint.

A fairly engrossing novel about a woman's unrealized romantic obsession with a man, whose son she ends up having an affair with. ( )

I picked it up, read a few pages and put it back down. I tried it again after reading a few other books and was able to finish. I wasn't impressed. I got bored. My mind wandered. ( )

http://talesofarampaginglibrarian.blo... ( )