Mr Golightly's Holiday: A Novel [Hardcover]

Salley Vickers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2004

1. holiday: a period in which a break is taken from work or studies for rest, travel, or recreation. [literally: holy day]

Many years ago, Mr. Golightly wrote a work of dramatic fiction that grew to be an astonishing international bestseller. But his reputation is on the decline and he finds himself badly out of touch with the modern world. He decides to take a holiday and comes to the historic village of Great Calne, hoping to use the opportunity to bring his great work up to date. But he soon finds that events take over his plans and that the themes he has written on are being strangely replicated in the lives of the villagers around him.

As he comes to know his neighbors better, Mr. Golightly begins to examine his attitude toward love and to ponder the terrible catastrophe of his only son's death. And we begin to learn the true, and extraordinary, identity of Mr. Golightly and the nature of the secret sorrow that haunts him and links him to his new friends.

Mysterious, light of touch, witty, and profound, Mr Golightly's Holiday confirms Salley Vickers's reputation as a writer of "fiction that entertains even as it considers serious questions of sin and redemption, love and loss" (Francine Prose, People).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

English author Vickers (Miss Garnet's Angel) has a light hand with themes that touch on issues of faith and sin, and her tale of Mr. Golightly, taking a break from his labors in a Devonshire village to see if he can create a worthy successor to his hugely popular and influential first book, begins with wonderful promise. Mr. Golightly's real identity, as well as that of his magnum opus and his chief business rival, is hinted at with delightful delicacy; and the fact that he chooses not to create any supernormal happenings, but to deal bemusedly with the people of his creation just as they are, makes him particularly endearing. Vickers is on sure ground with her creation of the more raffish of Golightly's new neighbors, but the introduction of a ravaged widow, Ellen Thomas, moves the book into murkier psychological waters. After a while the book's good humor begins to evaporate, and there is a highly melodramatic climax, followed by a weird chapter of discussion between Golightly and his rival that is reminiscent of the conclusion of The Brothers Karamazov and seems quite jarringly out of place. Vickers has a delightful if occasionally overwhimsical wit and writes charmingly of nature, human and otherwise, but the book fails to live up to its highly original central conceit.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The unassuming Mr. Golightly, author of an international best-seller, journeys to the small village of Great Calne, in Devon, England, leaving his extensive business interests in the hands of his trusted assistants, Michael and Gabriel, and his secretary, the superefficient and conscientious Martha. While on holiday, he plans to write a sequel to his best-seller but instead finds himself caught up in the lives of his neighbors, including Luke, struggling to write a Native American creation epic not in the rhythm of Longfellow's Hiawatha; young Johnny Spence, who reminds Golightly of his long-dead son; an escapee from prison; and many others. Vickers reveals Golightly's true identity only gradually, and one topic for book-club discussion will surely be, When did you realize who he really was? As in her first two novels (Miss Garnet's Angel, 2001, and Instances of the Number 3, 2002), Vickers writes here about faith, love, and mystery as they manifest themselves in everyday life. By turns witty and profound, comic and tragic, this is a good choice for libraries where Jan Karon's Mitford series is popular. Nancy Pearl
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (January 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374214891
• ISBN-13: 978-0374214890
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,111,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Clever and thought provoking, but....., October 13, 2004

By 

Lesley West (St James, Western Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr Golightly's Holiday: A Novel (Hardcover)

Salley Vickers' story of Mr Golightly's holiday is a gentle and clever book which allows us all to consider the nature of faith and how God may view the complicated every day lives that we all lead. The characters are interesting (if a little pallid) in their routine kinds of lives; the village is believable, and if you don't know the key to the story you can have a bit of fun trying to work out who Mr Golightly is, what is his business, and why has he lost his only son (not really too difficult to work out).

However, it is that very gentle cleverness that means that this book is somewhat slow at times, and in places I felt this rather hard going. I also felt the ending somewhat contrived, almost as if Ms Vickers wasn't sure how to finish the book.

It is certainly an entertaining read, and a good story, but I feel that it fell somewhat short of its potential. I feel that Ms Vickers' undoubted writing talents are better portrayed in "Miss Garnet's Angel", which is a far superior book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stellar novel, November 18, 2004

By 

Octopus (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mr Golightly's Holiday: A Novel (Hardcover)

I agree with the reviewer who has been recommending this to everyone. It's brilliant. Clever, funny, wise, deeply profound and highly original. Ms Vickers writes in a quiet, understated Brit way. Don't be fooled. There's a savage understanding beneath that decorous facade. And the ending is a tour de force. Bravo, Ms Vickers and may you continue to 'go lightly'!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Delightful!, April 12, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Mr Golightly's Holiday: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have been talking this book up to everyone I know because it is the best book I have read so far this year. It is absolutely delightful and I can't understand why it hasn't gotten more "press". It is a clever, sweet, kind book with depth and humor and I enjoyed reading it (twice) immensely. Regardless of your faith or religious background, I think everyone would enjoy this novel and get something out of it. I will definitely be looking for other books by Salley Vickers.