By Rhys Wright, Amy Blay and Rosie Green
If you’re about to set off on a much-needed holiday, if you’ve already had one, or if you won’t be having any at all this year, why not read about one? Whether you’re lounging around at the beach or in your bedroom, we can always use a bit of escapism. With that in mind, here are some fantastic LGBTQIA+ books featuring characters heading off on holidays they won’t soon forget.
Rough Music by Patrick Gale
Whether or not you’re escaping to a lush holiday destination while the warm weather lasts, you can still vicariously experience an idyllic summer getaway. That’s part of what you get with Patrick Gale’s Rough Music, a novel that follows two family holidays to the Cornish coast several decades apart.
Gale, who lives in Cornwall, renders its seas and beaches with exquisite vibrancy, but that only scratches the surface of Rough Music. He uses this picturesque setting as a backdrop for a story intimately bound up in revisiting the ugly side of family history.
In the 1960s, eight-year-old Julian and his parents go for a holiday at a Cornish beach house that will forever change their relationship with each other. Thirty-two years later, Julian, (now named Will), is having an affair with a married man and helping his mother through the early stages of Alzheimers. Returning to the same beach house with his parents, long-forgotten memories are uncovered that force him to realise that he never had the picture-perfect childhood he thought he had.
Gale is a long-established novelist who’s been able to balance humour with delicate subject matter, all while crafting characters who always feel believable. Published in 2000, Rough Music is a prime example. It’s a novel written with a knack for incisive characterisation and pointed details. Will’s wry personality and his easy, casual view of his sexuality make his point of view effortlessly readable.
It’s also a novel that taps into the lasting psychological impact that family holidays can have when you're a child – the repressed emotions and buried memories that can shape the rest of your life in ways you hardly realise.
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India, Japan.
Arthur Less is running, chasing blissful ignorance after his long-term ex-lover gets engaged and invites Arthur to the wedding – saying yes would lead to pure humiliation and wallowing in self-pity, while saying no would be shamefully admitting defeat. Instead, Arthur, an anxious, failing novelist, rummages through all the cast-aside literary invitations piling up on his desk and sets off on an impromptu trip around the world, as far away from the man he loves as possible.
From almost falling in love again to almost falling to his death, to getting swept up in sandstorms and turning fifty in the midst of all the chaos, readers follow Arthur on his comedic, yet moving journey described as a “love story, a satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart.”
Humour seeps effortlessly through the narration as Arthur traverses the world, with a wonderful variety of settings pitched so well by Greer that you can practically feel the sand between your toes, or the hot sun beating down on your face. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a comfort read for many, the endearing, heartwarming Less is the perfect summer holiday read.
In the Case of Heartbreak by Courtney Kae
After Ben’s cinnamon rolls land him a place in a TV baking competition, Take the Cake National, he suddenly has a lot more to think about than running his little cafe and quietly pining for Adam, the boy he’s fancied since forever. With just the first episode dredging up childhood traumas and throwing him into Adam’s path in a painfully embarrassing way, he’s grateful for his grandma’s birthday reunion and a couple of weeks away where he doesn’t have to think about his business, or being filmed, or his crush.
A warm summer breeze, luxury accommodation, time spent with family – this is what Ben expects when he arrives in Maywell Bay. He didn’t anticipate his father threatening his place in the competition, or his grandma’s financial difficulties, and he certainly didn’t expect Adam to appear at the birthday celebrations.
As Adam supports him through the increasing anxieties that surround him, it gradually becomes clear that Ben’s feelings aren’t as one-sided as he’d assumed, and a sweet and sincere romance begins to blossom.
Fun and full of cheesy quotes and classic tropes, In the Case of Heartbreak is a great read to kick back and relax on the beach with – or to kick back and pretend you’re on the beach at Maywell Bay with Healing Heartbreak Tea in one hand and cinnamon roll in the other.
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