Ceecee's Reviews > Dinner Party: A Tragedy

It’s Halloween 2018 and Kate Gleeson has a dinner party planned for her family to mark the anniversary of the loss of her twin sister Elaine. Her brothers Peter and Ray attend but not their mother. At the end of the night Kate has unraveled and not for the first time. The story is told in several timelines from 1999 at the family farm in Carlow, in 2006 when Kate attends Trinity, Dublin and in 2018 and 19.

This is a hard book to review as in places it’s riveting and in others rather slow. It’s a character driven novel with some really good descriptive imagery to demonstrate the character’s feelings and the atmosphere in the Gleeson household can be incendiary. Kate is the central character and she has so many demons, she’s extremely sensitive, struggling for years with eating disorders. The loss of Elaine weighs heavy on her, she’s hollowed out and can’t find her way through. Her relationship with food is handled sensitively and carefully by the author and your heart aches for Kate. The most vivid character portrayal is mother Bernadette who is very difficult to say the least, she can be vivaciously vile and Kate often bears that brunt. She’s the Queen at the centre of the family hive and expects them all to do her bidding. Kate’s brothers are lovely, they are kind and understanding. It all comes to a head in 2019 at the farmhouse Halloween dinner and it seems like after all this time the ‘boil is lanced’. The grudges, resentment and their mammy’s verbal cruelties reach a crescendo but there seems to be hope on the horizon and survival especially for Kate. However, the ending feels very abrupt and though you sense things look better there’s some lack of resolution.

Overall, despite the pacing issues it’s an intriguing book and I’m glad I read it.

With thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the arc in return for an honest review.