I don't really wanna finish this book, so I'm not going to. I got it in an Irish hostel and have already finished two other books since, even though I never read two books at once. Just didn't want it to spoil my holiday. Now I'm back home, and I really just can't be bothered. I'm on page 69, and nothing has happened seemingly. By the looks of some of the lower reviews, nothing will either. Also, they're talking about supposedly 'Dutch things' and I'm Dutch, and I don't recognize anything they're talking about. It's really bothering me. Gonna have to DNF

Northern Irish writer Bernard MacLaverty’s Midwinter Break is an intimate portrait of a long marriage between two “empty nesters” who are keeping secrets from each other.

Gerry, a retired architect, is desperately trying to hide his dependence on alcohol. At the same time, Stella, a former teacher, wants to explore her faith by joining a religious order — without her husband tagging along.

It’s only when the pair go on a midwinter break to Amsterdam that things begin to go awry and they are forced to confront the fact that they want different things out of life now that they have raised their family and no longer work. Stella describes it like this: “I’m tired. I’m tired of living the way we do.”

Slow-moving and with next to no plot, the story unfolds gently in the third person.

MacLaverty employs a close observational style that details the minutia of travel and the minor tensions and annoyances that can arise when a couple are confined together in strange surroundings.

As the pair traverse the city, visiting the sites — the Red Light District, the Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank’s house, amongst others — we follow their every move in minute detail, eavesdrop on their conversations and come to understand their deep love and affection for one another. But we can also see the pressure points.

MacLaverty switches the viewpoint from character to character with each new chapter, giving the reader a glimpse of the individual mindsets at play, and from this clever, but gently deployed device, we see how Gerry and Stella are very different people, driven by different agendas, motivations and desires.

Through this slow but intimate revealing of personality, a quietly devastating picture builds of a couple who endured a tragedy early on in their marriage and handled it in vastly different ways. That event, which resulted in them leaving their native Belfast for a new life in Scotland, has shaped them in ways that are still playing out 50 years later…

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Wise, bittersweet novel about a couple in the upper 60s of their life who take a vacation to Amsterdam. For Gerald, it is just another vacation and as long as he has continual access to whiskey he is fine. For Stella, it is something else entirely. The kids are gone and feeling restless and devoid of purpose, she has a destination in mind in Amsterdam. One that will change both their lives.

This is a novel told in small moments and gestures. Even when the small irritations of married life break open into hostility, it is only momentarily visible. The characters are whole and believable and dealing with the disillusionment that age can bring, as well as an event in their lives that, in particular, seems to be invading Gerry's thoughts. Stella, the very much more religious of the two, is the catalyst in the pair. It is her idea to go on this trip, it is her dissatisfaction that makes her decide to leave him. And ultimately, it is her disappointment that makes her consider not doing so.

This is a beautifully written book, wise about the vagaries of aging and the perils of not confronting trauma (I know, a hip subject, but Midwinter Break handles it with typical emphatic, ironic sympathy)

It may be too slow and detailed for some folks, but it just hit my comfort zone. Really liked it.

This quiet, reflective novel is a portrait of an ageing couple who have been married “for a protracted period.” Gerry and Stella Gilmore travel to Amsterdam for a few days. Gerry sees the trip as a holiday, but Stella has another agenda: she wants to explore how “to live a more devout life,” a life which may not include Gerry whose excessive drinking troubles her. They have many shared experiences and obviously love each other, but there are fissures in their relationship which may mean they will not be able to continue living as a couple.

This is a tender, sympathetic examination of that relationship and the complexity of love. Gerry and Stella love each other. They hold hands, kiss whenever they’re alone in an elevator, and make love regularly. Their familiar bantering suggests they enjoy each other’s company. They even have the same mannerisms: “Gerry joined his hands behind his back as he walked” while “Stella stood almost on tiptoe with her hands joined behind her back.” Stella does things to make life easier for Gerry and he is attentive to her: “her hand-eye co-ordination was a lot poorer than his, so generally he travelled behind her [on an escalator] in case she stumbled. If they were descending he would go in front.” Gerry’s extended interior monologue about what he knows Stella knows reads like a love poem, and the closing lines of the book may inspire tears.

Nonetheless, there are problems. Just as “nobody could peer into a relationship – even for a day or two – and come away with the truth,” Gerry looks at Stella and sees her “Like someone he did not fully know.” This image is repeated: “Seeing her as if he didn’t know her well” and “He was seeing her as someone he didn’t fully know.” And Stella does not always help Gerry understand her; when he asks about a conversation she had with someone, she replies that it “’would be of little interest to you.’” When she feels Gerry is dismissive of her views, she gets up and leaves, thereby dismissing his opinion.

Gerry and Stella’s shared history includes a traumatic experience in Northern Ireland during The Troubles; that incident, which they do not directly discuss, affected them deeply. They cope in different ways but their lack of communication means there are unresolved issues and a lack of understanding. Gerry’s drinking is also driving a wedge between them; Gerry describes their “skidding off each other” and their becoming “ships that pass in the night.”

The husband and wife are quite different in some ways. Stella is very religious; she prays daily, attends Mass every Sunday, and is a Eucharistic minister in her parish. In fact, “Her church was her everything” and she tells, Gerry, “’Mass is the most precious thing in my life.’” Gerry, however, is a non-believer who thinks religion is “’the greatest deception of our lives’” and often mocks Stella’s piety. His devotion lies elsewhere: “A poured, but as yet untouched, pint of Guinness has a slight dome to it which reminded him of the faint curvature of the outer wall of Burt Chapel.”

This is not a plot-driven book. There are no dramatic incidents except one event described in flashbacks. It is very much a novel of character. Both are realistic characters with positive and negative qualities. Gerry, for example, is not a caricature of a drunk, and Stella, though focused on living a good life, is not perfect. Since the perspectives of both are given, the reader gets to know them better than they know each other.

This understated novel about ordinary people with everyday frustrations is definitely worth a read. It is relatively short, but with its careful attention to detail, it packs an emotional punch.

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Les vacances són aquell període de l'any tan esperat, per gaudir del propi temps que durant l'any és segrestat. Són aquells dies on sovint dipositem grans esperances que habitualment no s'acaben complint del tot.
"Vacances d'hivern" és una novel·la on ens parlen del matrimoni entre en Gerry i la Stella, ja jubilats, i on algunes de les seves esperances o somnis de vida es veuen "sacsejats" en unes vacances a Amsterdam. Aquesta novel·la de Bernard MacLaverty ens ensenya com els camins, i el creixement personal de dues persones que porten tota la vida junts, s'han anat separant durant aquests anys, fins no poder estar més lluny l'un de l'altre. És per aquest motiu, que aquestes vacances a Amsterdam seran un punt d'inflexió per a ells, i a poc a poc, l'autor ens portarà, amb una prosa fàcil però molt ben elaborada en els detalls, a conèixer el moment vital dels dos personatges principals i quins esdeveniments en el passat han anat modelant les seves vides i el seu matrimoni.

A meditation on a retired married couple seen through a winter trip they take to Amsterdam with flashbacks of their relationship.

A perfect short novel questioning the institution of marriage and the battle between the loss of self and the benefit of companionship as we get old. My husband and I have adopted Ailments Hour as a very sensible thing.

MacLaverty presents us with a portrait of a marriage after middle age but before serious old age. His language is minimalist and elegant. Stella and Gerry love each other but they seem to be on divergent paths at this stage of life. Stella feels an indeterminate religious calling and Gerry feels a calling toward drink. Can this marriage be saved?

Scenes from a Marriage: Intense and moving.
I always loved to watch older couples strolling through the streets holding hands. After reading this book, I am not so sure about that anymore.
After sharing a lifetime together, do Gerry and Stella just hold up appearances? What does it mean to share a life together? Where does it lead? And how does it leave you in the end? In reviews and flashbacks they both contemplate about their life together which is intertwined with the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
I couldn't lay this book down!