Seeing Other People by Diana Reid review - A Sydney summer of entanglements makes the perfect beach read

Diana Reid's second novel, Seeing Other People, follows the lives of the Hamor sisters. Both in their early twenties, Eleanor is the responsible one, Charlie is the sensitive actor. Eleanor has just broken up with her boyfriend Mark (corporate lawyer, wannabe writer), and Charlie has recently moved in with Helen (brilliant producer, admired by all).

The scene is set for a Sydney summer of entanglements.

The novel has been given the tag-line "dramedy" - comedy and drama. The comedy is part situational, part witty dialogue, and made me laugh out loud several times - for example when a floundering, failed, man describes a strip club as "quite well lit, actually", and, later, when a 23-year-old exclaims in dismay at the thought that she may one day be thirty. Conversations swerve and sparkle, and often manage - along with expositional asides - to comment on "modern life" in a way that to me felt thoughtful and real.

The drama of the story comes from who sleeps with whom, and who else finds out about it. The meeting, drinking, lusting, texting, and keeping-of-secrets plot line unfolds over roughly four months, starting in November 2021. The mechanics of it all are entirely plausible, but I never became fully immersed in the emotional turmoil - partly because of COVID. Was the novel written before the Omicron wave? Was (is) the pandemic really that absent from young Sydneysiders' lives? The unpredictable ebb and flow of the pandemic creates a challenge for all contemporary novels, and I don't blame Reid for the way it distracted me throughout Seeing Other People.

I do, however, wonder whether the problem could have been partly solved by giving the world some time to settle down, and the manuscript some time to rest. It's not just about the pandemic - Seeing Other People gives the impression of having been written in a hurry. Rough patches include a vague job that - only when convenient - requires after-midnight hours; a confusing scene in which Helen seems to have become invisible; parental relationships hinting at a history that perhaps could have been developed further. The story is also told in close third person. The perspective roughly alternates between Eleanor, Charlie, and Helen, creating an occasional blur when they are all in the same scene.

That said, I devoured Seeing Other People in a weekend. According to its publishers, it's the "hot summer novel you don't want to miss", and there is no doubt it'll be hotly discussed, given the runaway success of Reid's first novel, Love & Virtue. The cover of Seeing Other People shows three women arrayed on beach towels, and if you're heading to the beach and need a light, funny read, this book will deliver that for you. I look forward to reading whatever Diana Reid writes next.