The Party surrounds scholarship and bullied pupil Martin, who befriends the magnetising aristocratic Adonis Ben. Their lives intertwine, from school to University and there is something Martin witnesses there that changes both of their lives, and forces them closer. Years later we are then witness to their reunion intermittently between vignettes from Martin’s perspective of the past. Ben’s party becomes the catalyst for decade long resentments and palpable tension, between Ben and Martin, but also Lucy, Martin’s wife, towards both Martin and Ben. When champagne flutes are given, looks are passed, betrayals are made, and thinly guised grievances rear their heads. Horrors that lay in Martin’s childhood are juxtaposed with Ben’s summer’s spent swimming in the lake on his estate. I flipped through the pages ferociously, where Martin’s obsession with Ben results in him presenting himself as a substitute to the family for their dead son, and the claustrophobic tale ends in a police station.
Within the book, the class war was understated but interesting; Martin has written an Art book, where the irony is lost on some, and the levelling of the playing field to a certain extent with money, does not equalise any of the tension, or keep the class war at bay. No matter what Martin does, he is a few steps behind. Day takes an interesting line with Martin, and from the inception through to end, our questions about him are never really answered. Was he merely trying to befriend? Was he in love? Was he mentally deranged? Did he just want to be Ben?
Day pairs spectacular and frenzied writing with solid and believable backstories. I am a firm believer in the more back story given, the better. I love climbing along the family tree, learning everything about one’s history and how that would influence them, and I feel that this provides respite from the suffocating atmosphere at the Party. None of the relationships are simple or straight forward as they seem - each character has their own complex personalities, and in the relationship these issues intensify and create a layered combination for the reader to consider.
Perfectly, The Party possesses an unexpected ending – however in retrospect, you can see where Day has adroitly sown up the story, leaving threads throughout alluding to it – thereby being satisfying for the reader. There were of course holes in the novel – for example I disliked Lucy and did not see her relationship with Martin as viable, I saw that Lucy’s story could have been left out, however perhaps a first hand account from Fliss or Serena would have added depth and interest. Crucially, I have not read a book like this before. The Party does not package itself as a typical psychological thriller, however this is undoubtedly what it is. The pace and tension make it so. However, I could not pigeon hole this book into one genre. There are so many themes and issues at play, and this book has earnt itself a permanent spot on my bookshelf, and potentially a ‘top 10’ too.
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