Book: Upstairs at the Party
Author: Linda Grant
A vein of cynicism travels through the latest work by British author and journalist Linda Grant. It focuses on the 1970s, a time of flower power, Sylvia Plath and liberalism. A social commentary in many ways, it also works as a kind of whodunit. But, in this case, it isn’t exactly murder but more like the circumstances surrounding a sudden death. What went wrong? The turning point that tilted the cake plate.
On the face of it, the book could have been quite a flat read, with numerous authors having explored the same period in more ways than one.
But Grant has taken that time and created something quite good. The people are clearly sketched and their juxtaposition with the post-War sensibilities well wrought.
The protagonist is Adele, daughter of immigrants including a father who is a crook and ends up hanging himself because of a “Ponzi scheme”. Her mother, a firm believer in marriage, helps the family scrape through, along with the help of a self-taught painter friend. The details of her burying family treasures in the backyard after the death of the husband and the blonde, red-lipped friend network form the narrative of Adele as a young woman wanting to escape and recreate herself. Does she succeed?
The university was supposed to be that key to a magical new kingdom, where re-invention would mean the memory of a father dead at the end of a silk tie is just a figment to imagine away.
But, life is never quite that simple. And she meets up with several people on the yellow brick road to a degree, who will chart the course of her life including a belligerent young man called George, his androgynous sister Lorraine and their exploration of the sexual undertone in relationships.
As expected, things become quite messy with the shadow of homosexuality adding to the mix.
It could have been quite a tedious read. But, Grant has given us a well-crafted, sincere piece of work that would definitely make us wonder: Is freedom and lack of supervision truly a good thing? Are we safer with just a bit of Big Brother in our lives?
