A Dream Life
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
A JEWEL OF A NOVEL BY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER CLAIRE MESSUD.
When the Armstrong family moves from New York at the dawn of the 1970s, Australia feels, to Alice Armstrong, like the end of the earth. Residing in a grand manor on the glittering Sydney Harbour, her family finds their life has turned upside down. As she navigates this strange new world, Alice must find a way to weave an existence from its shimmering mirage.
Lies and self-deception are at the heart of this keenly observed story. This is a sharp, biting and playful tale with a cast of unscrupulous characters adrift in a dream life of their own making. Written with the characteristic delicacy of touch, humour and emotional insight that make Claire Messud one of our greatest writers.
'[Messud is] among our greatest contemporary writers.' — The New Yorker
'A perfect frolic of a book, puffed on breezes of beauty and wit: it waltzes you through a little fear, a little darkness, and tips you out, refreshed and laughing, into the sun.' — Helen Garner
'Witty, arch and acutely observed, A Dream Life expertly captures the excruciating insecurities of class in our supposedly classless society.' — Geraldine Brooks
'A novelist of unnerving talent.' — The New York Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Messud (The Burning Girl) offers an intriguing if slight domestic drama. When Alice Armstrong's husband, Teddy, gets a job in Sydney, Australia, she moves there with him and their two young children, Sadie and Martha, from New York City. Their imposing new house, dubbed Chateau Deeds after its owners, offers Alice "a hiatus from reality," but it also requires tremendous upkeep, which proves too much. The first two housekeepers Alice hires don't work out, leading a friend to recommend getting live-in help. The choices presented by her applicants leave her feeling "assailed by the arbitrariness, the strange irrelevance, of her Australian existence." Alice hires Simone Funk, a choice that may be foolhardy—Simone tells wild, possibly tall tales about being a runway model as a teen. Simone also has an outburst that may be a red flag ("Stuck-up cow. She doesn't know the first thing about me," Simone says of a house guest). There is some chilliness between Alice and Simone, and things come to a head after it's revealed that Simone has Alice's daughters massage her. Messud keeps readers on tenterhooks waiting for a shoe to drop, and when it does, everything recalibrates. The story may be slim, but the writing is crisp—"Guilt swept across their features like a veil"—and so is Messud's attention to detail. This is worth savoring.
