The Evening of the Holiday

"This is a book that I read over and over. I keep it on my desk when I write, because I feel like I can turn to any page of that book and remember what good writing is and why I write. It’s the story of Sophie. She lives in England, but we find out she’s half Italian. She goes to see her Aunt Luisa just outside Siena. She goes to a sad little afternoon tea, with Luisa’s friends, who are artists and they are older. Sophie must be early thirties, and there she meets the middle-aged Tancredi, who is not really in the mood to be there, and doesn’t much like the look of her. So it starts slowly, and I think reluctantly, on both of their sides. But the minute they start speaking to each other, they have this wonderful, literature-fueled conversation that carries through the rest of the book. It’s beautiful writing. Every sentence is so stunning. Everything in it just moves me. And so their love really moves me. Sometimes I recommend this book, and a lot of people don’t feel it the way I feel it. Theirs is a love that is definitely never going to work. They live in different countries. There’s a lot of mystery there. It’s hardly ever mentioned, but we don’t know what attaches her to England. She writes a postcard that says something like, ‘I miss you all.’ Does she have a husband? Children? We have no idea. But she can’t stay, and he’s married, although they don’t see each other very much. It’s poignant from the beginning because of that, and it’s just a beautiful moment in time when two people who are lonely and a little bit lost find each other and give each other something. Then it has a really spectacular ending—such a beautiful, moving moment that takes place about six months later. That’s so true. I just love ‘Vittorio’ too. I couldn’t decide which love story was more powerful for me out of the two Shirley Hazzard choices. ‘Vittorio’ is not a very long story. It’s about an English couple who come to stay at an older Italian man’s house. He has an extra room that he’s letting. He’s an old professor, very proper. And she’s a young, unhappy wife, married to a pompous, awful man. Or—he’s maybe not so awful, but she’s not happy with him, and he’s dry and remote. Vittorio lost his wife a while ago, and I think he’s been feeling a little dead inside. And this woman brings him to life. Nothing ever happens, but she becomes aware of it, and it’s a simple story about a man starting to feel again after a great hurt. I find it so lovely. I also just love being in Italy, even in books. So that has something to do with it too—all the Italian details and food and streets… just very thrilling. Hazzard lived in Italy for a long time and she was as enamoured with it as I am. You feel that in every sentence. So there is her love of Italy in that story as well. That’s interesting. If I look at this list, there aren’t many with happy endings. I don’t know what is so satisfying about a tragic ending, or an ending that isn’t an ending. I think that can be moving in its own way. I absolutely don’t need them to end up together, and it’s a harder route to navigate. A happy ending in a literary novel? It’s a real challenge. So it’s definitely not a requirement for me. I love the happy tears I might shed at a happy ending, but there’s also something very, very moving about it not working out."