The Party by Elizabeth Day - Review

I picked this book up in a charity shop not that long ago. I haven't read anything by Elizabeth Day before but I have the book Magpie by her as well, which I will have to read soonish. I was intrigued by this so bought it for a couple of quid. 

I had seen this book sort of touted as a cross between The Talented Mr Ripley and Brideshead Revisited, which I would completely agree with, but I also think it's got a touch of Saltburn in it too. I also read a couple of more negative reviews on Goodreads left by people I know or follow, and I have to say I didn't disagree with them. One of them said she was kind of sick of this kind of narrative, which I do get. However I don't think I've read too much of this type of story - and I loved Saltburn - so it worked for me. But some critcisms were valid. 

There are kind of three strands to the book, which are all about the same people and which are all concentrated on the events of one particular night. In one strand, Martin Gilmour is being interviewed at the police station about the events of the night of his friend Ben's fortieth birthday, some weeks previous. He is interviewed by a woman with beige hair and a man in a grey suit. He is determined to not give them anything, but of course, he has underestimated what exactly they know and he has to work out how much to tell them. 

In the second strand, there is his wife Lucy's notebook. She is in therapy with a man called Keith, and we get to see her side of their marriage. Martin is not really in love with her, and is cold towards her. There are a lot of hints that he is actually gay. And in love with Ben. She is somewhat downtrodden by life and by him. She seems to think she doesn't deserve anything better, in a way. Something happened at Ben's birthday but Lucy's part in it doesn't get revealed until late on in the book, which I actually think worked very well. I liked Lucy but she is used as the only person with any morals in the entire book, which is kind of annoying. 

The third strand of the book is Martin's retelling of his entire life. He was born in to a lower middle class family and his dad died just before he was born, leaving him to be brought up by his cold, distant mother, Sylvia. He is very clever, but doesn't fit in at school. Eventually he gets a scholarship to Burtonbury, a public school in Derbyshire (I think). He arrives, and he obviously doesn't fit in, because he's not posh enough, and he doesn't speak like they do, and he doesn't understand how to act like them. He doesn't make friends, but he meets Ben, a popular and good looking lad. He becomes obsessed with him and plots how to become his friend. After that, the other boys sort of tolerate Martin, although they still don't actually like him. Martin describes Ben as his "best friend".

For Ben's birthday, Martin and Lucy head to Ben and his wife Serena's new massive mansion house, a former priory. They are a bit put out to have not been invited to stay at the house, and are instead stuck in the local Premier Inn or whatever. They head over early. Ben is his usual, cheerful, charming self. He shows them round the new house and he says he wants to speak to Martin about a business deal later. Serena is her usual self too - she's beautiful, but cold, and she clearly thinks Martin and Lucy are beneath her. The couple have four children. Martin and Lucy have no children which Martin is glad about but Lucy is sad about. Lucy can't stand Serena so she is determined to just get drunk at the party.

The party happens. The Prime Minister (meant to be David Cameron, I'm sure) turns up. Martin's old bully, somebody Jarvis, turns up too. He went to Cambridge alongside Ben and Martin, and there are so many secrets coming out. 

There were a few things that I thought were anachronistic, given that Martin and Ben were supposed to be in school in the early 90s and then at university just after that. I also thought that it was maybe a tad predictable in terms of the story. All the characters are unlikeable but I don't think that's necessarily a reason to not like the book? I don't have to like people to find the stories compelling. It wasn't perfect but I did enjoy reading it. I'm giving it four out of five.