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 birth and subsequent death
of their son and how all these events affect them both.
Fisher returns to the fictional seaside town of Bealthorpe,
where he holidayed with his parents and sister as a child. It portrays an image of the traditional
British seaside holiday, and it presents an interesting contrast to perceptions
of the British seaside today. Fisher
returns to Bealthorpe to find solace at a difficult point in his life, but
instead finds that Bealthorpe has changed compared to how he remembers it; he
seems restless and unable to settle to anything, betraying the underlying
tensions affecting him. Bumping into his
parents-in-law, ostensibly by coincidence, doesn’t help matters. As his week progresses, Fisher gets to know
the other guests in his hotel better, punctuated by periodic meetings with his
in-laws to try and heal the rift between himself and Meg.
Mention is made of overseas package holidays, which were
already fashionable by the time Middleton wrote his novel. The reader gets the feeling that Bealthorpe
is on the edge of decline, a town on the edge of nowhere on England’s east
coast. He presents Fisher’s jaunts
around the town and surrounding country almost like a documentary; Fisher is
remarkably forward and strikes up conversation with many strangers, tourists
and locals alike. In all these
conversations he reveals little of himself; he escapes from his own
difficulties by allowing others to talk about themselves and the town. Fisher’s escape is temporary however; as his
stay comes to an end, he knows he must face up to his past in order to move on
to the future.
Middleton’s novel is not as far-reaching in scope as other
Booker winners have been and seems less impressive when compared to the works
of Gordimer or Farrell that went before.
I found it enjoyable enough, but will be selling the book on; I doubt I
will read it again. If anyone wants it
let me know!
