Characters on Holiday: Ten Excellent Books

My first themed post for 2024 looks at ten wonderful books where the central characters go on a holiday. For a few these holidays are part of an annual ritual and immensely therapeutic, or a haven for forging new friendships, or a period of reflection and introspection; for others, these holidays transform into something deeply unsettling, sometimes descending into horror.

So without further ado, here are the ten books. You can read the detailed reviews on each (barring one) by clicking on the title links…

THE FEAST by Margaret Kennedy

With its combination of wit, social commentary, and mystery, The Feast by Margaret Kennedy is a terrific novel; an excellent upstairs-downstairs drama and comedy set in Cornwall post the Second World War featuring a seaside hotel in danger of being buried, an eccentric ensemble cast with hidden secrets, and the high voltage interactions and tensions between them.

We first learn in the prologue that the Pendizack Manor Hotel lies buried in a mound of rubble after a huge mass of cliff collapses on it. Seven guests perish, one of whom is Dick Siddal, the owner of the hotel, while the others survive. At that point, the identities of the casualties as well as the survivors are not revealed to the reader, and that in essence forms the mystery element of the plot. After the prologue, the reader is then taken back to a week earlier, from whereon the book charts the arrival of the guests at the hotel, its other inhabitants, as well as the chain of events leading up to the tragedy in question.

Displaying a sharp, astute vision, Kennedy’s writing is top-notch as she weaves in elements of a social satire and morality fable with those of a thriller. Her gimlet-eyed gaze on the foibles and failures of her finely etched characters make both the endearing as well as the horrible ones pretty memorable. 

A FORTNIGHT IN SEPTEMBER by R.C. Sherriff

The Fortnight in September is a beautiful, soothing novel about an ordinary family on holiday, an annual tradition they have adhered to over the years. The book opens with the Stevens family getting ready to leave for the seaside town of Bognor, preparations are in full swing and a sense of excitement is palpable. Mr Stevens, a thorough and meticulous man, has drawn up a “to-do” list called “Marching Orders” in the Stevens lexicon, with a precise set of instructions on the various duties to be carried out by each family member before they lock up the house and set off.

The rest of the novel then charts the entire fortnight of the family holiday – lounging in the beach hut, swimming in the sea, hours of leisure on the golden sands soaking up the sun and indulging in sports and games. That’s really the crux of the novel and it’s largely plotless and yet such a wonderful, immersive read because there are so many aspects of the Stevens’ personalities and travel mantras that are familiar and spot on. What’s truly remarkable about the novel are the character studies – the Stevens’ are ordinary people, not too financially well-off, but they have a goodness of heart that makes them so memorable.

DEATH AND THE SEASIDE by Alison Moore

Death and the Seaside is a terrific tale of failure, of being easily influenced, death, and writing that unravels in a rather unexpected way. Our protagonist is Bonnie Falls, a young woman about to turn 30. Bonnie’s life so far has been without any direction or purpose and she has not much to show for her half-hearted efforts. She is a college dropout having abandoned a degree in literature, which rather limits the job opportunities available. But she is an aspiring writer with potential and has already penned the beginning of a story that is dotted with sinister happenings.

Lost and adrift, Bonnie moves out of her parents’ home to a rented flat, where she becomes pally with her landlady, the mysterious Sylvia Slythe, an unlikely friendship that also seems eerie. Sylvia is unusually interested in Bonnie, especially in the story Bonnie has written, and arranges a seaside holiday for the two of them.

Why is Sylvia so deeply interested in an unremarkable person like Bonnie? Is there something sinister lurking behind Sylvia’s motives?  This remains a mystery to the reader until it all becomes clear as the novel progresses and reaches its dark conclusion when on their holiday.

COLD ENOUGH FOR SNOW by Jessica Au

Cold Enough for Snow is a haunting, beautifully sculpted novella of the mysteries of relationships and memories, familial bonds, finding connections, and life’s simple pleasures. The novel opens with a woman and her mother embarking on a short trip together to Japan, a journey and destination that promises the opportunity for both to bond and connect. But we get a sense from the outset that mother and daughter are not always on the same page.

What’s interesting about this novella is the nature of the relationship between the two women, which remains elusive despite the hazy impression that they get along well. The book is largely from the daughter’s point of view and so the mother’s reminisces and flashbacks are told to us from the daughter’s perspective lending it an air of unreliability or conveying the idea that the mother’s experiences are filtered through the daughter’s eyes so that it fits her narrative.

There’s an elusive, enigmatic feel to the novella, of things left unsaid that might mean more than what’s been stated, a sense that things lie outside our grasp, that full knowledge is always on the fringes, on the periphery of our vision. To me Cold Enough for Snow was like a balm – the quiet, hallucinatory prose style and range of sensory images were very soothing and I could easily lose myself in the dreamy world that Au created.

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf

There’s a reason why To the Lighthouse is a classic, it is Woolf at her sublime best. An impressionistic portrayal of the Ramsay family and their circle of friends during a holiday on the Isle of Skye told through various perspectives – all in Woolf’s trademark stunning prose.

EVERY EYE by Isobel English

Awkward Hatty Latterly is the protagonist in Isobel English’s superb novella Every Eye. It focuses on two pivotal periods in Hatty’s life – the past when she is a young adult in a relationship with a considerably older man, and the present when she is on a honeymoon with her husband who is much younger than her. The present section is particularly memorable because the couple’s journeys on train and boat from France to Barcelona and finally to Ibiza are wonderfully depicted by the author. Eventually, both the past and the present will merge in an unexpected way.

THE ENCHANTED APRIL by Elizabeth von Arnim

The Enchanted April is a delightful, charming novel centred on four women from different walks of life who decide to spend a month in summer holidaying in Italy. These women come from completely different backgrounds, but there’s one common thread binding them: they are disillusioned with the sameness of their days and are desperately seeking an outlet that will bring some colour to their lives along with the much-needed rest and solitude.

Once ensconced in the Italian castle, the four women begin to interact with each other and it is these exchanges that make The Enchanted April so delightful – the awkward dinner conversations, the various machinations to claim the best rooms and views for themselves, and their opinions of each other. The Enchanted April then is a gem of a novel with much wit and humour to commend it. Arnim’s writing is lovely and evocative and all four women in the novel are brilliantly etched, they come across as fully realized characters. This was a perfect book to read in April with a particularly feel-good vibe in these trying times.

THE GREENGAGE SUMMER by Rumer Godden  

The Greengage Summer is a gorgeous coming-of-age tale of love, deceit, and new experiences, a beguiling mix of light and darkness set in the luxurious champagne region of France.

Our narrator is the charming Cecil Grey, aged thirteen and at the cusp of womanhood. Cecil has an elder sister, the beautiful Joss aged sixteen, while the younger siblings are Hester and the Littles (Will and Vicky). Fed up with their continuous grumbling, the mother whisks them off to France to see the battlefields hoping that some kind of exposure and knowledge about other people’s sacrifices will open their eyes to how self-absorbed they are.

But all their best-laid plans go awry when the mother falls ill. Thus, once at the hotel, the children are largely left to their own devices and latch on to the mysterious Elliott who takes them under his wing much to the chagrin of his lover and the owner of the hotel, Mademoiselle Zizi.

This is a beautiful book with evocative descriptions of a languid French summer. Despite the joys of new experiences, there are darker currents with hints of violence, death, and sinister happenings. Cecil, accustomed to the straightforward world of children, is often confused by the behaviour of the adults around her, the ease with which they lie and extricate themselves from a challenging situation. And she and Joss are faced with the possibility that Eliot may not be what he seems, he has his own secrets to hide.

A WREATH OF ROSES by Elizabeth Taylor

This is a beautiful, dark tale of dangerous deception, lies, friendship, and mortality where in the opening pages, Camilla is on her way to the countryside to spend the summer with her two best friends – Liz and Liz’s former governess Frances – just like they always did in the previous summers. A Wreath of Roses is one of Elizabeth Taylor’s darker novels looking as it does at the pain of life, its random cruelty, and the agonies of isolation. Throughout its pages, an air of violence and peril lurks, all kinds of fear grips its characters, and the reader is overcome by a feeling of dread and an impending sense of doom. Just as the book opens on an ominous note, so does it end with darkness at its heart.

FEVER DREAM by Samanta Schweblin (Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell)

Fever Dream is a short, terrifying, and suspenseful tale set in set in bleak, rural Argentina. The novel opens with a scene in a hospital where our protagonist Amanda is lying on a bed, unable to see. By her side is David, a precocious child, but we soon learn that he is not Amanda’s. Whose son is he then? And why is he in the room with Amanda? David, meanwhile, is urgently pushing Amanda to recollect events that led to her hospitalization. He implies that Amanda is on the verge of dying.

As Amanda tries to make sense of what has happened to her, more of her story is fleshed out. We are told that Amanda and her daughter Nina leave Buenos Aires to travel to a holiday home in the countryside. Amanda’s husband does not join them. At the holiday home, Amanda meets Carla, and they get friendly. One day Carla tells Amanda a scary, supernatural story about her eight‑year-old son David, whose soul, Carla believes, has “transmigrated” into another body: “So this one is my new David. This monster.” Amanda finds the story incredulous and thinks Carla has lost her mind.

Meanwhile, early in the book, Amanda talks about what she calls “the rescue distance”, the variable safe distance between Amanda and Nina at any given point in time. As the perceived level of threat increases, the more taut the line grows and the closer together they must be. In this bleak, disconcerting narrative as events get more terrifying and incomprehensible, Amanda starts increasingly obsessing about this ‘rescue distance.’

While the tone and mood of this novella are deeply unsettling, Fever Dream also pulsates with a sense of place where the vast and menacing rural Argentinian landscape is as much a character in its own right. One facet of the book sees Schweblin balance supernatural elements with the more grounded realities of Argentina’s lack of agricultural development. The other angle chooses to explore the mother-child relationship. Can we ever be too protective of our children and in the process unwittingly become the cause of disaster? Schweblin’s prose is taut, compelling, and addictive as the story hurtles to its tense conclusion. All credit also to Megan McDowell for a smooth, effortless translation.

And that’s it! Enjoyed compiling this post, and plan to write more such themed pieces in the future. Happy reading!