Holiday (1974)
Who wrote it?
Stanley Middleton (1919-2009, active 1958-2008), born Nottinghamshire, England (like me!) Author of 44 novels, many of which were written alongside a full time career as a schoolteacher. He was also a talented organist and watercolour painter.
What's it about
An academic, Edwin Fisher, spends a week at the seaside while coming to terms with the breakdown of his marriage soon after the death of his young son. While Fisher deals with the unexpected intervention of his in-laws on his holiday and hangs out in pubs with his fellow boarding house guests, the backstory of his relationship unfolds via flashback.
What I liked
Certainly the most understated Booker winner to date
Plain-speaking, gets to the point. Economy of style and clarity of expression. All qualities I massively value in a novel.
A wonderful evocation of the English seaside of the 70s - Fisher is consciously choosing a holiday that is already becoming a nostalgic relic for his middle-class circle of contacts, as the majority head for the Costas and the staycation begins its inexorable decline (c.f. 2020)
What I didn't like
The compromise in giving the prize to two authors is as evident in 1974 as it was in 2019. I'll come onto this more in my next review, but in some ways I'm only surprised it doesn't happen more often. Faced with such wildly different novels as this and the Gordimer, any decision is going to be some sort of compromise.
It was hard sometimes to root for the central character, a somewhat stuffy middle class academic with nothing much to recommend him. He clearly views himself as a "class above" his fellow seaside visitors, which lends the whole thing a vaguely condescending tone. It's hard to tell (without more exposure to Middleton's output) whether this is purely character commentary or partly a reflection of the author.
The same applies to Fisher's rather unsavory male gaze throughout the novel. There are a few too many crude descriptions of female characters predominantly/entirely by reference to body parts for anyone's comfort (though to be fair at least some of them are given the opportunity to punch back, to a limited extent)
It's hard to feel any sense of the importance of the relationship between Edwin and Meg. Their coming-together feels forced and semi-accidental, their relationship mostly awful and (spoiler) their reunification massively unearned. Maybe this is all the point? If so, it paints something of a bleak picture.
Food & drink pairings
A good old English pint, in the pub, in the afternoon. Or two? Maybe a third?
Boarding house breakfasts.
Fun facts
This was the year that Kingsley Amis's wife Elizabeth Jane Howard was part of the judging panel of three (along with AS Byatt and Ion Trewin). She managed to get Amis' Ending Up on the shortlist and pushed ahead with arguing for it to win. The other two judges were in any case in favour of Gordimer's The Conservationist. Eventually giving up hope on successfully negotiating a victory for hubby, Howard switched allegiance to Middleton, and managed to move the panel's decision towards a tied outcome - one of (to date) only three occasions on which this has happened.
In a particularly tedious stunt, Sunday Times reporters sent the first chapter of this novel to a bunch of publishers in 2006 and they mostly rejected it. Well done those journos, what a commendable use of time.
Middleton rejected an OBE in 1979, reportedly because he didn't feel he deserved credit for simply "doing his job".
Vanquished Foes
Kingsley Amis (Ending Up)
Beryl Bainbridge (The Bottle Factory Outing)
C. P. Snow (In Their Wisdom)
Of course, Middleton shared the 1974 award with Nadine Gordimer and her novel The Conservationist, which I'll be reading next. Other than that though - guess what? I've read none of the others - Should I? Should anything else have been nominated that was written in 1974?
Context
In 1974:
Harold Wilson returns to power in the UK following the resignation of Edward Heath
Nixon resigns in the aftermath of Watergate
IRA bombing in Westminster Hall; Birmingham pub bombings
Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Terracotta Army discovered
Ceefax launched by the BBC
"Rumble in the Jungle", Ali v Foreman
ABBA win Eurovision with “Waterloo”
FIFA World cup in West Germany
First episode of Bagpuss
Kraftwerk, Autobahn
Life Lessons
A visit to the seaside and the occasional afternoon pint will see you through anything
Something Hardy-esque about the value of stoicism and what have you. Possibly misguided.
Score
7
A solid affair, beautifully economical and very readable but perhaps not especially memorable.
Ranking to date:
Troubles - J.G. Farrell (1970, "Lost Booker") - 8.5
The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell (1973) - 8
The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (1970) - 7
Holiday - Stanley Middleton (1974) - 7
In a Free State* - V.S. Naipaul (1971) - 6.5
G. - John Berger (1972) - 6
Something to Answer For - P. H. Newby (1969) - 5.5
*Read in later condensed edition.
Next up
Fairly obviously, Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist, which in the edition I have looks like a Lonely Planet travel guide.
