Clever Girl

A middle-aged woman relates her life story from the 1960s to the present, a coming-of-age, after age, after age story, as she evolves into womanhood in the UK. Bright and industrious, a mother at an early age, Stella is filled with unresolved fury and rebellion. She is always most gratified when situations or people save her from herself. Dramatic and realistic, Stella's story includes violent deaths, failed affairs, and broken hearts. The book is not so much about what she chooses in her life as it is about how she lives out what befalls her. A uniquely gifted writer, Hadley (Married Love), never vague, possesses a narrative voice that moves the characters through their phases with parenthetic irony. Like an artist dabbing in precise luminous details, she has a masterly grasp of pivotal moments and renders them with brilliant economy.