And so after two years and nine months we
come to the final book of the Bookers so far…but not for long as the 2013
winner will be announced later this week!
I do feel a sense of achievement to have
accomplished my goal, but it has sadly ended with a sense of anti-climax as
‘Holiday’ was rather a damp squib of a book.
For me 1974 wasn’t the best of years in
terms of the Booker as neither of the joint winners (Holiday shared the prize
with ‘The Conservationist’ by Nadine Gordimer) were my cup of tea. I have come to realise why this novel
may have remained so elusive during my search – its popularity has not been able
to be sustained due to its inherent weaknesses.
The novel recounts a week’s holiday of a
middle aged man who has just left his wife, at the seaside resort he frequented
with his family as a child. The
story details his excursions and the people (including his in-laws – what a
coincidence!) he encounters, in addition to casting back to memories of his
life with his wife and attempting to reflect upon what went wrong. It’s
definitely not a plot-driven novel and its emphasis on the inner thoughts of
the protagonist could have been pretty interesting but something was missing
from his ponderings that left me decidedly unsatisfied – I just didn’t care
whether or not he did return to his wife!
I’m sorry to say that it was just so dull,
the story is dull, the characters are dull and I was glad when it ended. The writing was adequate, but the novel
did nothing but slightly irritate me due to its pompous characters and
insignificance. However it wasn’t
even bad enough to inspire much of a reaction other than indifference.
So there we go…I am tempted to envy my Dad,
who has been partaking of the Booker experience along with me, who has kept
‘Midnight’s Children’ until the end. That would definitely feel like a more fitting end to this
literary journey. Although, I
guess that it’s not really the end as the prize continues and I look forward to
finding out where the Booker will take me next…
No comments:
Post a Comment