47th out of 48 books
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1,008 voters
Holiday
This consummate portrait of English provincial life, an extremely subtle story, told with all Middleton's artistry and depth of feeling, was joint winner of the Booker Prize in 1974.
Edwin Fisher is on holiday at the English seaside -- but this revisiting of childhood haunts is no ordinary holiday. Edwin is seeking to understand the failure of his marriage to Meg, but it t...more
Edwin Fisher is on holiday at the English seaside -- but this revisiting of childhood haunts is no ordinary holiday. Edwin is seeking to understand the failure of his marriage to Meg, but it t...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
August 1st 1999
by Five Leaves Publications
(first published December 1st 1988)
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So, it cannot be easy to share the Booker with Nadine Gordimer, and it is perhaps that misfortune that has caused Holiday to fall into some obscurity. It is a quiet book (not that The Conservationist is loud), and has an entirely narrow focus: the inner workings of a single man’s mind, on holiday in the English seaside, as he tries to sort out why his marriage failed. He meets fellow holiday-goers, deals with the machinations of his ex-in-laws who are trying to force a truce (and piece the marr...more
Stanley Middleton was jointly awarded the Booker Prize in 1974 with Nadine Gordimer. Middleton’s Holiday is, on the face of it, a novel about a man who goes to a British seaside town for a week-long holiday. In reality, education lecturer Edwin Fisher is escaping from the death of his son and his crumbling marriage to grieving, volatile Meg. Through a series of flashbacks, prompted by events during his holiday, the reader sees how Edwin first met Meg, their courtship and eventual marriage, the b...more
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I have been watching Mad Men a lot recently (no spoilers, I promise) but with the recollections that our main character (Edwin Fisher) has about his marriage, I can't help picture Don Draper and Megan. It has something to do with their fights and their passion.... Now, Edwin is not nearly as attractive as Don Draper, but it's just something about the relationship that reminds me of them.
This book is just so.... English. Stiff upper lip all the way. Even when married women are letting divorced me...more
This book is just so.... English. Stiff upper lip all the way. Even when married women are letting divorced me...more
Fisher takes a week's holiday in the same English seaside town he went to as a child. Recalling with embarrassment the way his father used to interact with his fellow boarding house guests, he is surprised to find himself acting in much the same way.
An acutely drawn picture of life in the early 70s, things get much darker as Fisher mulls over whether or not to return to the unusal marriage he has recently walked away from.
An acutely drawn picture of life in the early 70s, things get much darker as Fisher mulls over whether or not to return to the unusal marriage he has recently walked away from.
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Stanley Middleton wrote 45 novels, including 1974's Booker Prize-winner Holiday. A Cautious Approach was his last novel.
More about Stanley Middleton...
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