3.5*

First, this a clever title, given the political side of this book.

I knew very little about the rise of fascism in England during this period and this book is very informative, from that perspective. Indeed, it's as though all of the historical details regarding food, clothing, language and politics of the era were the starting point and then a novel built up around the research from there, rather than the narrative demanding the research, as such. This resulted, for me, in a lack of drive through the novel - it didn't start to really take off until I was at almost 50% of my way through the book. The exception to that was the material from 1979 - that held my attention much more than the chapters set in the pre-war period. That might be because it was told in the first-person and was also direct-address, so I felt I had a deeper connection with the character in this time. The only character I felt I had a good grasp of in the pre-war period was Sarita.

It seemed to me that the story jumped around a lot - one minute you're at a dinner and the next in a yard. That may be the electronic version I'm reading and that there are suitable separations made in the printed text, but even so, there was not a smoothness or flow to the story. When things did start to flow in the second half of the book, I felt there was some repetition.

Without wanting to give anything away here, I found a few elements of the novel difficult to swallow. For example, given Nina and Patricia's relationship, it was difficult to believe that Nina made the decision she did in relation to the sisters. She would surely have named her other sister whom she did not like, for these purposes.

Overall, this is a well-researched novel and it is that research that forms the basis of the work.

With thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Books UK, Viking and Cressida Connolly for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After the Party was an interesting and absorbing read, looking back on a time in history that is rarely dealt with – in fiction the anti-nazi war sentiment is to the fore, of course though there are always shades of grey in any human reaction and this is the subject that Cressida Connolly deals with in her novel.

I can’t say I liked any of the characters that much if I’m honest – but they were highly intriguing and the themes explored were extremely thought provoking. The writing is beautiful and descriptively evocative as we follow Phyllis, reconnecting with her sisters, getting intricately involved with a community and, ultimately, failing on a very human level and ending up incarcerated.

To be honest the inciting event wasn’t as shocking as is foreshadowed but in lots of ways the book isn’t about that anyway – it is about the elite, the idealism of a time in our lives when war beckoned and everything was changing. In that it was haunting and as the blurb says, exquisitely observed.

I liked that “After the Party” tackled some issues that I hadn’t really considered before and overall this was a wonderfully engaging read that left me slightly melancholy.

Recommended.

When Phyllis, the narrator of the first-person sections of ‘After the Party’, describes her appearance after a spell in prison, we are told that her hair is ‘…yellowing white, like the mane of an old rocking horse.’ Not only does this description conjure touch as well as sight with tremendous effect but it also lets us know that here is a woman of a certain social status. How many children would have had a handmade rocking horse to play on as a child? Whilst we know that Phyllis has been in prison from the beginning of the story, we are not sure why for some time. Cressida Connolly gradually reveals that mild, sensible, thoughtful Phyllis is a committed member of the British Union, the notorious Fascist organisation led by Oswald Mosely in the 1930s, as is her husband and one of her sisters.
The political and historical aspects of this novel are very well delineated and very interesting indeed. Whilst most of us will be aware of Mosely’s anti-Semitic Blackshirts, perhaps fewer will know that summer camps for children on the south coast were regular occurrences of Party life and all manner of people were attracted by the British Union’s nationalistic views in the build up to WW2. Details of Phyllis’s imprisonment in Holloway and then the Isle of Man are vividly delineated as is life outside prison before the war – plenty of dinners, parties, and bored privileged women looking for amusement.
There is much to recommend in this novel – these politics little explored in fiction, Connolly’s writing certainly brings this period to life. Her descriptive detail is always very well judged; she can delineate a character with one well-chosen simile and she gives an equally vivid sense of place, whether it be Phyllis’ friend Sarita’s beautiful house, the grim reality of a Holloway prison wing or the Isle of Man countryside. However, the plot is not quite so successful. The last section of ‘After the Party’ lacks the direction and drive of the majority of the novel. Whilst we are told quite a lot about life after the War, it is merely sketched out, almost as if Connolly has become bored of her characters. This tired mood may be deliberate – after all, Phyllis’ life does become rather directionless - but it does weaken the overall effect of the novel.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

Family dynamics, elitism and fascist politics all collide in this engrossing novel. Cressida Connolly creates a shocking but nonetheless believable portrait of a family at odds, and a protagonist who feels unmoored and overwhelmed. This a believable depiction of a tumultuous period, with an evocative sense of detail. Absolutely gripping.

A really unusual view of England before and during World War II. The story of three sisters caught up in politics which they either do or don't truly understand. There was some information in here I didn't know about the period about Mosley's Blackshirts being imprisoned for such a long time. Interesting view of social class when the empire was completely dying.

Part family saga, part half-hearted guilt-memoir - what really gives this book its fascination is the setting of the story amongst adherents of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists in 1938.

So much WW2 historical fiction shows us characters nobly and wholeheartedly disgusted by Nazis - the reality, of course, was never that clear-cut and thus the real interest of Connolly's novel is bringing that shameful ambivalence back onto the table. It's perhaps no coincidence that the British fascists in the novel are also anti-Semitic, do not see Britain as part of Europe, are against the League of Nations, cling to a conservatism which despises 'foreigners' and non-Tories, and believes in the rectitude of the British Empire - shades of Brexit, anyone?

There are places where Connolly could be more incisive: there's much to-do about minor things (the 'event' at the party, for example, just doesn't have the significance that the blurb promises) but I like that she doesn't overstate. For example, she resists introducing either Mosley himself directly into the story or Diana and Mitfordiana - and the book is better for that restraint.

So certainly not a faultless novel but an important reintroduction to fiction of Britain's flirtation with fascism in the run-up to WW2.