The Party

June 19, 2017
Fans of Herman Koch’s The Dinner will be tempted to check out Day’s fourth novel—both follow two couples with simmering emotional histories as they spend an upscale evening together, during which old resentments are revealed and something tragic occurs—but in this novel, the plot plays out predictably and is beset by obvious foreshadowing. Ben Fitzmaurice and Martin Gilmour, Londoners on the cusp of middle age, have been best friends since they met at public school in 1989, despite the fact that the former comes from a wealthy, titled background and the latter a hand-me-down existence. Ben and his beautiful wife, Serena, hold a party to celebrate their new home, Tipworth Priory, a former monastery. Martin and his more modest partner, Lucy, are invited. Now a successful art critic, Martin has never gotten over the meanness of his youth and rubs shoulders uneasily at the party with Ben’s posh guests, including the new prime minister. At the end of the evening, Ben and Serena ask to speak to Martin and Lucy in private, and that’s when things get out of hand. Ultimately, this is a hollow diatribe against the rich and entitled.

Starred review from June 15, 2017
Tempers flare and loyalties fray when old friends gather for a lavish bash in the English countryside.A police interrogation provides the frame for this literary suspense novel from British author Day (Paradise City, 2015, etc.). Three weeks prior to Martin Gilmour's summons by the Tipworth PD, Britain's best and brightest gathered at charismatic power couple Ben and Serena Fitzmaurice's new vacation home--a former monastery--to celebrate Ben's 40th birthday. Also in attendance were misanthropic journalist Martin and his dowdy wife, Lucy, as Martin and Ben have been practically inseparable since boarding school. The question of what happened that night to attract the attention of the authorities is the skeleton on which Day's plot hangs, but the book's true mystery concerns the bond that links these two seemingly incompatible men. Martin is a spellbinding storyteller who doles out details like they're a controlled substance. He pauses frequently to reflect upon his complicated history with Ben and the unhappy childhood that preceded it, and his narration is littered with keen yet cutting observations about people, their relationships, and society at large. Excerpts from Lucy's journal fill the gaps and provide additional insight regarding her husband, their marriage, and the Fitzmaurices. Vividly sketched characters and evocative prose further distinguish the story, which ends on a note that both shocks and gratifies. Day's latest is a dark, haunting, and elegantly crafted tale of obsession, desperation, devastation, and rebirth.

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