LATE IN THE DAY by Tessa Hadley

This beautifully written novel moves along solemnly until it erupts, albeit somewhat quietly.  It’s the story of Christine and Alex, who are very close friends with Lydia and Zachary.  When the four of them first met years ago, Christine started dating Zachary, and Lydia had a crush on Alex, and then they exchanged partners, sort of, for better or worse.  In one particularly memorable scene, the four of them are on the brink of all having sex together when a child enters the room and cools their ardor.  Now Zachary has died, and the remaining three have to reassess their relationships with one another.  Zachary is really the glue that has kept them all together, and his art gallery was responsible for introducing Christine’s work.  Lydia, a seemingly shallow and vain woman, is completely unmoored by Zachary’s death, as her entire being has revolved around him; she does not know how to function alone.  Lydia does not come across as a likeable or sympathetic character, even in her grief, but Christine infuriatingly cuts her way too much slack, as they have been close friends since childhood.  Then the unthinkable happens.  Both couples have grown daughters whose roles in the novel are tangential and who somewhat reflect their mothers’ personalities.  Alex’s son from a previous marriage, on the other hand, is a famous musician, and I would have enjoyed a little more participation from him in this drama.  Ultimately, though, this book is about the trajectory of a marriage, as well as the evolution of a lifelong friendship, and how one event, a death in this case, can send it careening down a totally different path.