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• Midwinter break in Amsterdum

  建築家だった Gerry と教師だった Stella はともに退職して老境にさしかかっている。 アイルランド人の二人は1970年代の混沌のベルファストに暮らしていたが、その後スコットランドのグラスゴーに移り住み、カナダに暮らす息子夫婦と孫もいる。 Stella は思うところあって、アムステルダムへの小旅行を計画する。 夫の Gerry はアルコール依存に陥っていて、旅の折々にも Stella の目を盗んではお酒を飲まずにはいられない。 Stella は敬虔なカトリック教徒で旅先でもミサに出かけ、ベギン会修道院の施設を訪れ、生き方を模索する。 I'm tired. I'm tired of living the way we do. I have a sense of drift. I want to do something with the time I've left. Other than watch you drink. タイトルの「真冬の休暇（break) 」は、真冬の破局（break)」ともとれ、旅の終わりに、Stella は Gerry にこれから先の人生は別々に過ごしたいと告げるのだが ～。 寒さ厳しく道路には氷がはりつめ、雪のちらつくアムステルダム。運河沿いを二人で歩くときは Gerry はさりげなく Stellaに気を配り、「アンネ・フランクの家」を訪れたり、「飾り窓」の地区に踏み込んだり、アムステルダムのいくつかのスポットも効果的に取り入れられている。その合間あいまには、ベルファスト時代の出来事も織り込まれ、Gerry と Stella のそれぞれの思いが、淡々と綴られていく。 帰途の空港で雪に閉ざされ飛行機が欠航となって、夜を明かす二人。彼らの過ごしてきた人生がまた思い浮かび、Gerry は大切なことに気づくのだ。

• New meaning to dull

  Labored through it. Found it pedestrian, with unwelcome detail and little plot development.

• A beautiful read

  An excellent,well crafted story of tragedy in everyday life. McLaverty is an exceptional writer.

• Profoundly depressing

  The book is very well written, very evocative and realistic. But if you tend to be depressed, keep well away from it. The story of the aged couple that decides - of all places - to travel to Amsterdam in Winter (why not Mallorca?) could not be more fatalistic and sad. His drinking problem ... Her traumatic experience she never got over ... Or - let's say - if you like deep melancholy this is your book. Personally I prefer books that leave you feeling better and contain some answers. Anyway, four stars because of the excellent writing.

• Late life crisis in a long marriage

  In Midwinter Break we meet an “older” couple, Stella and Gerry, who are taking a break from their Glasgow home to spent a weekend in Amsterdam. Teasing questions immediately arise: how old are these two? and why Amsterdam in February? Bit by bit, meaning clue by clue, these questions and many others are answered. At first it seems Stella and Gerry each have a crutch. She is a devout Catholic and he is a secretive drinker. But of course religion and alcoholism are not parallel, although Gerry’s repeated mockery tries to label his wife’s religiosity as akin to a bad habit. We follow both through the weekend, sometimes together but more often separately. At the beginning there is more emphasis on Gerry and we learn about the couple’s shared history through his often maudlin trips down memory lane. Both are Irish, she working class, he middle and their early married life was spent in Belfast during the Troubles. There something both terrible and miraculous occurred that’s key to the novel’s plot. (Typical of the author’s strategy, this singular event is not revealed until more than halfway through the book.) But the real focus is on Gerry’s drinking—his wiley attempts to obtain whiskey, hide it, drink in secret, all the while piling up evasions, denials and lies. MacLaverty masterfully dissects the inner life of a high-functioning alcoholic. In the book’s second half, attention shifts to Stella who is on what amounts to a religious quest. Desperate about her marriage, she fumbles to find a solution that will honor both her Catholic girlhood and the (sort of) feminist she has become. My only complaint about Midwinter Break lies with with the character of Stella who is so self-contained she’s not very interesting. Is Stella internalizing a lifetime’s worth of anger at her drunken husband? Or like so many women in Irish fiction, does she just stoically accept whatever fate dishes out? Gerry drunk with his eloquent inner monologues is simply more compelling. Whether anything will be resolved over the weekend isn’t the point. We experience a moment of crisis in a long marriage depicted with great wit and eloquence. Well worth the read.

• Magnificent writing.

  MacLaverty has written a beautiful and melancholy tale of a middle-aged couple on a weekend break in Amsterdam, each haunted by their own ghosts and on the brink of separation. Everything is so vividly described you can almost feel you’re there on that cold January weekend, watching these two people, and hoping that they both will be well. Beautiful.

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