Daisy Goodwin
THE author and broadcaster suggests key novels to help you through the trickier times in life
THIS is the time of year when we all begin to fantasise about living in an olive grove somewhere with lots of sun, sea, cheap wine and relaxed locals who seem to have figured out the meaning of life. Things would be different in a place where the outlook is always sunny, wouldn’t it?
It’s an idea that has been explored by many novelists, but none better than F. Scott Fitzgerald in his great 1934 novel, Tender Is The Night.
Dick and Nicole Diver are Americans who have moved to the South of France so Nicole can recover from a nervous breakdown. They enjoy a hedonistic existence of sun and parties and on the surface everything appears to be perfect, but when young Hollywood star Rosemary appears, the perfect weather and endless bottles of rosé can do nothing to stop the fissure that appears between the Divers as Dick falls in love with the new arrival.
The breakdown of the Divers’ marriage is made all the more painful because it happens in such an earthly paradise. Moving abroad won’t mend a marriage; it just gives it a different backdrop.
Laura, the American heroine of Natasha Walter’s tense new thriller, A Quiet Life, has come to England just before World War II to escape her abusive father. However, she finds she is excluded from the snobbish world of her English relatives.
As a result she falls in love with the first man who shows an interest in her, blind to the fact he is bisexual.
She ends up in a relationship that is as painful as the one she was escaping from. As Laura discovers, you can run, but you can’t hide from yourself.
Julia, the mother in Esther Freud’s wonderful novel Hideous Kinky, moves to Morocco in the Sixties because even Swinging London isn’t exciting enough for her. A free spirit, she takes her two daughters with her.
But what seems like glorious freedom for Julia feels like deprivation for her children: seven-year-old Bea longs to go to a proper school, while Lucy, five, dreams of mashed potatoes.
The novel is loosely autobiographical and while it shows children are seldom as enthusiastic about moving abroad as their parents, living in a foreign country is clearly great training for the budding novelist.