Quick-witted Nina Dean, the heroine of journalist Dolly Alderton’s debut novel, is a likable food writer who lives in north London. The challenges she faces as a privileged single thirtysomething may, at first glance, seem like familiar terrain for a millennial novel to explore. Nina wrestles with generational conflict with her parents; the difficulties of maintaining friendships when husbands and babies arrive; and the quiet thrum of the biological clock alongside the vagaries of online dating and, more broadly, of a life increasingly played out online.
No doubt Nina’s sharp-eyed observations on these zeitgeisty issues will remind many of Alderton’s bestselling memoir Everything I Know About Love and the conversations on her The High Low podcast. In Ghosts, the social commentary is often showcased in satirical set pieces where, occasionally, slightly laboured jokes undermine the overall comic force. Nevertheless, these comic turns often made me chuckle: the depiction of a hen do dominated by a passive-aggressive maid of honour is brilliant. The subsequent wedding with the best man’s speech delivered by a “childhood friend who, regrettably, was in an improv group in his spare time which explained the numerous wigs and props that he used [in his] rambling anti-anecdotes” is sharply done too.
Amid these comfortingly recognisable tropes, in her 32nd year, Nina’s life becomes even more complicated. Her father, a retired teacher, begins to display signs of dementia. Simultaneously, after a spell of romantic misfortunes, Max pops up on Nina’s dating app and drifts into her life. Max is a deliciously drawn confection, blessed with captivating “moss green eyes”; he looks “good in a chunky roll neck”, but can rattle off one-liners with as much adroitness as Nina. As one might predict, Max does indeed prove too good to be true.
Indeed, Max’s singular brand of cruelty and the novel’s other darker themes show Alderton’s writing at its strongest. The unnerving introduction of Nina’s threatening neighbour Angelo is a particular highlight. The depiction of her mother’s reaction to her new role as a carer – a brittle but steadfast denial that there is a problem – also makes for effectively unsettling reading that tests the boundaries of what used to be called chick-lit. It would be good to see this element of her writing – the difficult, the ambivalent – find an even fuller voice in Alderton’s subsequent novels.
• Ghosts is published by Fig Tree (£14.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
