Supper Club: A Novel
by Lara Williams
A sparkling debut novel from a young British author about a collective of hungry women who meet secretly, in the middle of the night to feast until they are sick. The project is a statement of intent: it is time, they say, to throw off restraint and take up the space that they deserve. This is a novel that will appeal to fans of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn and Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends.
Supper Club was reviewed for us by Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn.
Sparkling first novel from an award-winning short story writer, which follows a group of millennial women as they embark upon a transgressive art project: an irregular society of women, who meet irregularly to eat until they can’t eat any more, dancing and drinking late into the night – setting their minds to putting on weight and learning to live unapologetically and without compromise.
It’s a brilliant concept – liberating, even thrilling – and I can see this book making a real splash on publication.
Williams also sensitively unpacks the dynamics of her protagonist Roberta’s central relationships. Who is better for her: Stevie, her brilliant, complicated, demanding best friend; or Adnan, her caring, sensitive, law-abiding boyfriend? They place conflicting demands upon her, and as Roberta wavers in her loyalties it soon becomes clear that she will not be able to keep both of them happy.
The book takes an interesting form, folding flashbacks and recipes into the mix, reminiscent of Ephron’s beloved Heartburn. I gorged on this book over a single weekend, as surely I was intended to. It’s sensuous, gluttonous, joyful and – in equal parts – unsettling; a celebration of hedonism, and a warning too.
Cal Flyn, Deputy editor
Recommendations from our site
“The novel takes an interesting form, folding food writing and recipes into the mix, reminiscent of Ephron’s Heartburn. Sensuous, gluttonous, joyful and a little unsettling; a celebration of hedonism, but a warning too.” Read more...
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Cal Flyn, Journalist
Five Books review