After the Party

After the Party was great, a very enjoyable and easy-to-read novel. However, I could not help feeling somewhat misled. This was a classic (bad) example of the plot suggested by the blurb markedly differing from that which occurred in the novel. Maybe the moral of the story is not to read the blurb, but at least it calls for a recalibration of expectations. Back to the story and Connolly has produced a worthy piece of historical fiction. Readers are taken effortlessly back to 1938 and the calm prevailing Britain before the storm of the War (there are also snapshots of a dull and dreary 1977). After the Party indeed demonstrates just how much the past can seem like a foreign country. Mores that it would be hard for someone living in 2020 to imagine are depicted plausibly. The focus of the novel is to discuss how the (perhaps somewhat naive) appeal of British Fascism (Mosley) can have hazardous and long-lasting consequences. The shift from the third-to-first-person narrative (past to present, 1938 to 1977) was an effective one. Connolly also writes well on shame, guilt and the difference between the two. 8/10.

By Cressida Connolly