"Clever Girl" Not So Clever

It’s hard to dislike a book when its prose is vividly illustrative—embellished just enough to color a scene in an imaginative way, yet crisp enough to not get caught up in unnecessary ornamentation. But British author Tessa Hadley’s latest book, “Clever Girl,” proves that beautiful prose itself isn’t enough to elevate a book from good to extraordinary. Author of The New York Times Notable Books “Married Love” and “The London Train,” Tessa Hadley attempts to explore family relationships and class in modern life through the experiences of an Englishwoman named Stella in “Clever Girl.” In 10 separate vignettes, the novel recounts Stella’s life from her childhood to adulthood, starting from the 1960s. The story follows a painfully ordinary life, cluttered with deaths, failed marriages, and rebellious children. Even with its numerous plot-twists and gorgeous prose, “Clever Girl” offers nothing else other than an overwhelming sense of dullness.

The book proceeds chronologically, but because of its vignette-based structure, gaps remain in its complicated plot. The first chapter launches into Stella’s childhood, in which she begins to question her father’s supposed death. Stella excels at her private school and is set to go to a university when she meets Valentine. Their passionate teenage romance is short-lived, however, as she is soon abandoned by Val and discovers that she is pregnant. After a stint as a housekeeper and a waitress, she eventually gets pregnant again by a new boyfriend—who is tragically killed before the baby’s birth. Later, the readers find out that she has somehow pursued a university degree and married a businessman, adopting an old friend’s daughter with him—an awful lot happens in this supposedly “ordinary” life.

It is easy to relate to Stella at first, as the novel recounts her teenage phase. She narrates in a rebellious but instantly relatable Holden Caulfield-like voice (albeit without the dialect). When she gets into fights with her stepfather, Gerry, one wants to take her side. “I didn’t exactly argue with him. I sometimes said, ‘I didn’t mean to’ in a flippant voice, or denied things it was obvious I had done…All my effort was used to keep my mouth curved upward in a grimacing smile, which I knew was my best weapon because it made Gerry squeeze his fists and raise his voice.” (51)  Similarly, when she falls in love with Val, the reader wants to root for her even when it’s clear that the relationship is bound to fail. The young Stella is full of keen observations and bluntness not yet tamed by age.

The tempo of the narration unnecessarily accelerates, however, at the expense of the reader’s connection to Stella. After her unexpected pregnancy and an unplanned gig as a housekeeper, Stella inexplicably moves in with an English teacher. Later, the tragic death of Stella’s lover, Nicky, is sprung on readers without any notice. An event that profoundly alters Stella’s life trajectory is introduced by just a mere chapter break and a fragmented sentence: “And then I was a widow.” (139) Hadley doesn’t even explain to the reader right away how Stella became a widow; rather, she takes a circuitous route, choosing to instead go on a four-page tangent about Stella’s other boyfriend. When the moment of Nicky’s death finally comes, Hadley again truncates this moment with a sentence: “And that was it.” (144) Short sentences can be effective when their length alludes to a greater significance, such as the protagonist’s wish to erase the trauma. But that is not the case in “Clever Girl”—after Nicky’s death, Hadley jumps right into Stella’s life with the same English teacher, once more without any context.

Even worse, the unnecessary truncation and fast speed fails to show exactly how Stella grows in the novel. The reader sees change in Stella, but the story behind the change is left out. At first, Stella is shown to be incredibly dependent on Valentine. She alters her appearance to fit his image and follows him even at the expense of forgoing education. However, much later in the novel, at around her second marriage, Stella is shown to be independent when she begins to pursue a graduate education. When exactly did Stella become independent? Was it the teenage pregnancy, her boyfriend’s tragic death, or both? Although readers can assume several possibilities, the book doesn’t explicitly show how or when, losing its narrative line. In addition, Stella seems to be vehemently against the “bourgeois mentality,” or her middle class background, yet she ultimately marries a businessman who supports capitalism. The reader cannot tell if she still disagrees with the laissez-faire approach or has changed her opinion. Instead of illustrating how Stella evolves, Hadley leaves the reader to guess in an unfulfilling manner.

Despite the novel’s shortcomings, Hadley’s prose is delightful to read. Her vivid descriptions keep the book from collapsing entirely. In describing the new place that her family moved to, Hadley writes, “The house was so new it was raw. There were still labels stuck across the glass in the windows, so that it seemed to stare with lifeless eyes at a ruined landscape of red clay.” (42) The illustrative prose sketches the scene in such a realistic manner that it almost masks the dullness of the book. Yet the prose doesn’t entirely salvage the book, as the descriptions are really only decorative—“Clever Girl” fails to be so clever.