Lydia's Party: A Novel
Lydia, an art teacher at a “godforsaken suburban community college,” is preparing for her annual, women-only dispel-the-­midwinter-blues party and worrying about how to break her bad news to her friends. They’re quite the group. Lydia believes that ruthlessly ambitious Norris, an internationally successful artist, is in a serious rut. Librarian Celia is finding life with her husband and son claustrophobic. Elaine has a Hillary fixation, and Maura is at loose ends after the death of her married lover. Hawkins’ third smart, crackling novel (after A Year of Cats and Dogs, 2009, and How to Survive a Natural Disaster, 2010) is a snowy, midwestern Mrs. Dalloway, with Elizabeth Berg-ish charm and Hawkins’ own edgy, artfully particularized humor. Standout moments include Lydia introducing her students to Ivan Albright’s unnerving paintings of “female beauty gone to ruin” and her contrasting of her perfect nieces, “Amazons of privilege,” with the struggling single mothers and veterans in her classes. As Lydia and her circle pull together in her time of need, Hawkins considers the profound gift of friendship and the ways art and life converge to forge meaning and preserve truth and memories. --Donna Seaman