It was Hilary Mantel who started this...
'Why is Bernard MacLaverty not celebrated as one of the wonders of the world? His new novel Midwinter Break will be my Christmas present to myself....'
It was one of those end of the year reading round-ups offered on the literary pages by the great and good to give the rest of us ideas about what to read, and for many of them, I must confess, I sense a bit of back-scratching going on, my nepotism antennae are on full alert, and strike me down if it had never crossed their minds. But Hilary Mantel is in a different league and if this was good enough for a Christmas present to herself then it was good enough for me.
Retired couple Gerry and Stella, he previously an architect, she a teacher, head off to Amsterdam from their home in Ireland for a short holiday. Married for an eternity it would seem, and settled into that groove of familiarity and understanding that such longevity creates, but Stella has an inner restlessness born of Gerry's issues with alcohol and her own near-death experience when much younger. Stella has a change of direction in mind, a surprising one that she wants to explore in Amsterdam (no not that) whilst Gerry seems happy to carry on as he is.
I was immersed from the opening lines. Tiny references to things not being quite right cleverly woven into the narrative by Bernard MacLaverty, whilst Gerry and the drink gains momentum, his furtive attempts to conceal his alcoholism making for superb reading...
'The drink was unfurling him...drink made everything easier - easier to feel, easier to find words. Some people he knew were transformed by it into monsters. They became viscious, spiteful and, worst of all, violent creatures. But not him. With a drink or two in him, he loved people, wanted to hug them, not hit them.'
It's not hard to sense Gerry's panic at the thought of running out of drink. nor to accept the lengths he will go to to find one, all the time assuming that Stella doesn't notice.
Likewise Stella's quest for change and her search for a place of peace...
'An alpha and omega place. Where the mind and the spirit could be freed by being restricted. Exercise for those who wanted to remain within walls. Imprisoned yet protected from the outside world.'
And maybe Stella thinks Gerry doesn't notice, but sometimes he does...
'He just saw her as if from afar. Like someone he didn't fully know.'
Midwinter Break another book that allows for thinking beyond the given.
I wondered about Gerry's alcoholism and how bound up it might be in Stella's near-death experience..
How much Stella's devout faith was wrapped up in the aftermath of that too...
And Gerry's open mockery of Stella's faith...
Bernard MacLaverty leaves these things unsaid, reader work to be done if wanted..
But Bernard who?
Why was he not firmly on my radar, celebrated as a wonder in my reading world, if he was on Hilary's. I needed to know much more about Bernard 'The Mystery' MacLaverty and I warmed to him instantly reading this...
'Some years ago in Dublin I bought a finger doll of James Joyce to set on the mantelpiece. I loved the idea of entrepreneurs making money from their most famous writer without having read a word. On later visits I bought Oscar Wilde and Ernest Hemingway, to be companions for Joyce above the fireplace. Much later when my grandson (2½ yrs) came to visit he discovered magnets in their heads. So we have devised a game we call “Throwing Writers at the Radiator”. As they stick we have to shout their names out. You can say what you like but the wee boy will be better educated than many.'
Many years ago Offspringette bought me a set of these and I treasure them. I have James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf and I have to confess that, at times various, similar games have been played. Mostly though I walk around my Book Room looking for hidden but magnetic places on which to hang them by their heads. I love the sudden attraction of magnets where least expected, and who knew they would stick to my computer screen (I know computers and magnets, never a good plan but the unit is safely under the desk).
Don't you just love their facial expressions...
But I digress...
Melancholy, retirement and its challenges, along with the intuitive nature of that state of couple-dom and the exquisite writing have all contributed to make Midwinter Break one of my three best reads of the year so far. A little bit of digging and I discover that it is to be made into a film once the director John Crowley has finished work on The Goldfinch ...where on earth have I been, I didn't know about that either. One of my best reads of 2014, so double joy ahead.
I'm sure some of you will have read Midwinter Break so please do add thoughts in comments.
And what about other books by Bernard MacLaverty, and while we are about it any more recent Irish-themed fiction that I may have missed, all of which is reminding me that I still haven't written about Inch Levels by Neil Hegarty, and I must.
Oh and the other two Best Reads of the Year so far...this one, and A.N.Other still to be revealed.
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