THREE ROOMS by Jo Hamya

authentic while also working as a self-aware feat of metafiction. Griffiths plays with footnotes, point of view, musical notation, and historical records to develop his story while also putting Beethoven at the center of a range of lively relationships. He develops a gentle rapport with Thankful, a woman who teaches the deaf composer sign language, parries with the officious reverend who’s written a dreadful libretto for the oratorio based on the book of Job, and tests the patience of the society members concerned the maestro won’t meet his deadline. (A young Herman Melville also makes a brief, amusing cameo.) In the process, Griffiths spotlights a country that’s anxious to establish its cultural standing while still tethered to its stiff Puritan nature. In that regard, Beethoven is both a unifying force and a means to expose the fault lines. And though the Oulipian strictures might’ve suggested stiffness, the novel feels like the best kind of historical fiction, open-minded while honoring facts.

Stylistically rich and thoughtfully conceived historical fiction.

IN POLITE COMPANY

Hagerty, Gervais Morrow/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $14.49 paper | Aug. 17, 2021 978-0-06-306886-5

Dissatisfied with her prescribed life, a young woman attempts to be bold. As a member of the Charleston, South Carolina, social elite, Simons Parks Smythe has had her life planned out for her since birth. For a while she stuck to the script: She was a debutante, she attends functions at the exclusive social club Battery Hall, and her fiance, Trip, has the “law degree and southern pedigree” that make him a perfect fit for her world. But Simons is not satisfied with this life. Not only does she feel stalled in her career as a producer at a local news station, but she is also growing increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of marrying Trip. This discomfort is spurred by the less-than-perfect marriages she sees around her as well as Trip’s controlling behavior: “When I reached for a second helping of potatoes au gratin, Trip pressed his hand against my thigh. His signal, invisible beneath the table, told me not to stuff myself in polite company.” With repeated encouragement from her beloved grandmother Laudie to be brave, Simons must weigh her desire for comfort and familiarity against her newfound taste for freedom and individuality. From occasional references to Simons’ passion for environmental reporting and her soft critiques of the racism of Charleston high society—“It seems Battery Hall is even more backwards than I had feared”— Hagerty’s attempts to set Simons apart from her peers feel largely shoehorned-in and underdeveloped. That said, the rich depictions of the Old Charleston world and its peculiar social rules, as well as Laudie’s intriguing backstory, give this novel just enough grit to make it worth reading.

A reminder of the rewards of taking the more challenging path.

THREE ROOMS

Hamya, Jo Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (208 pp.) $22.49 | Aug. 31, 2021 978-0-358-57209-1

A young woman seeks a foothold in the ugly, precarious world of post-Brexit England. As this distinctive debut novel opens, the unnamed 20-something narrator is moving into a rooming house in Oxford, a “repository for postdoctoral research assistants at the university” and formerly the home of 19th-century critic Walter Pater (so says the blue plaque by the front door). She’s come here after almost a year of spotty freelance work and occasional help from her parents, but she yearns for more than just a furnished room: “the end goal I