The Evening of the Holiday

I read this novel some 35 years ago and remembered it recently when I saw Rossini's Tancredi. I wonder if there is some significance to the hero's name. In the opera he is a heroic bumbler with a complete inability to have a decent conversation with a woman and dies as a consequence. Alright...maybe not as a direct consequence, but, in any event, Hazzard's hero is somewhat different, as I remember.

Hazzard is an elegant, intelligent writer, and GREAT FIRE is one of the finest novels in recent memory, but I was a bit disappointed by EVENING OF THE HOLIDAY, a slim novel which tells the summer love affair of a British traveler with an Italian landowner. Hazzard has great insight into human nature in general and culutral identity as well, and her lyrical descriptions of the Italian countryside are lovely. However, the story here never quite engages; the love affair is doomed from the start, we are assured, and Hazzard can't quite keep us enthralled, as she usually does, although, as in all Hazzard's work, there are stunning moments of insight and clarity, and one is astounded how easily she can throw off an aphorism.

To read Shirley Hazzard is to venture into times and spaces restricted by social mores. Evocative of Edith Wharton, her characters are ensnared by the prevailing right and wrong of the times in which they live. In this case, it is post World War II Italy. With an economy of words, she paints a magnificent sense of place, imbues it with ordinary people and requires them to make life altering decisions. Unlike contemporary writers, Hazzard does not pin every detail on the page - readers are required to think. There is always an elegance in Hazzard's work, even in this early, straightforward novel.

I'm writing this primarily to counterbalance the single, negative review this novel has been given. Hazzard is a gem. She has that rare quality in an author, a voice of her own. There is no mistaking a Shirley Hazzard paragraph -- and often single sentences identify her unique style. I would take Hazzard any day over most of the unoriginal, unimaginative writing that routinely makes its way onto the best seller list. Hazzard is an artist, and as such deserves great respect. No, this isn't my favorite novel of hers, but I quite liked it and felt that, as always, she gives us a new perspective, taking ordinary subject matter and looking at it afresh. The novel is quite evocative of both time and place, but mostly of feeling. Hazzard writes about life with all its complications. There are no bromides, no up-by-the-bootstraps, empowerment solutions for Hazzard's characters. They make (or sometimes don't make) choices and then must live with the messy consequences. I'd say read this novel, if for nothing else, to hear Hazzard's unique voice again. You'll get more out of it than just that, but it's worth it just for that!