Savage Holiday: A Novel

by Richard Wright, Gerald Early (Afterword)

Insurance executive Erskine Fowler's self-destructive tendencies clash with his attempt to conceal his involvement in an accidental death

Genres: Fiction, African American

235 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1994

About the author

Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of powerful, sometimes controversial novels, short stories and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerned racial themes. His work helped redefine discussions of race relations in America in the mid-20th century.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather odd little book by Richard Wright, who is of course famous for Black Boy and Native Son, and the only one of his novels not about race. It's not terribly successful; Wright takes a situation that, on its face, is actually comical and treats it in a deadly serious (literally) and utterly humorless manner, but he lacks the touch necessary to do it properly; as a result, the situation comes across as farce masquerading as tragedy. To make matters worse, the writing is bloated and the characters are histrionic cartoons, for the most part. Nonetheless, the book is an interesting detour in Wright's canon, so for any readers who, like I did, made it their business to read most of Wright's work, it might be worth having a look.

The one lasting effect this book had on me: I always make sure I'm wearing at least a bathrobe when I open the door in the morning to get the New York Times.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1954, when at is peak (his third novel), this is something of a departure in style for Wright, in that it is a psycholigical noir-style thriller with an almost entirely white cast. Set on the affluent streets of the Upper East Side Manhattan it concerns the morose and obnoxious character of Erskine Fowler, who at 43 has just been pensioned off from a wealthy insurance company. His bizarre weekend that follows is calamitous and tragic. The atmosphere is Hitchcockian, and the style is typical 1950s US noir; Thompson / Highsmith / Goodis / Willeford / Himes.
Wright was well aware his publishers may not be in favour of him switching genres - they (Harper) rejected it outright, and it was published by Avon. Consequently there were no reviews in the US for more than a year. He said in a radio interview at the time,

In this novel I have attempted to deal with what I consider the most important problem white people have, their moral dilemma. This is why I have chosen this white New Yorker as a protagonist.

It works on a number of levels; to understand Wright's experiment, his commentary on wealthy white America, or perhaps best, just as a more than decent dark thriller - we're familiar with that naked-in-public nightmare, but here there is no waking up; Erskine's nightmare is real and its reality, spine-chilling.

[Black Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Wright is one of my favourite writers of all time. He just speaks to me in a way that most authors do not, we have this complex relationship....

I really wasn't expecting the ending, it completely threw me off, I thought he was at going to marry Mabel. But reading the afterword made realize much of what confused me about the story. He wanted to delve into the mind of a psychotic and extremely paranoid person.

Would read again.

[Myth Liberated · Rating 1 out of 5]

داستانی که دو قسمت کاملا مجزا و بی ربط بهم داشت و اگه قرار بود قسمت دوم داستان بیشتر جلب توج کنه لازم نبود اون قدر به قسمت اول و تکمیلات اضافی ان می پرداخت و قسمت دوم داستان هم با اینکه خیلی ملاحظه شده بود ولی باز هم کاملا تو سطح ظاهری افراد مونده بود و اگه پیامی هم داشت فراموش میشد ،آخرش جالب بود و به نظر بیشتر یه نمایشنامه در قالب داستان بود

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing read. I am too depressed to write a proper review of this book.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Wright is absolutely amazing.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gruesome. No idea what I'd do if put in this situation.

[Kevin Xu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's plot was good, but the way it was written was in a style that only could have been done by Richard Wright.

[Steve Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Savage Holiday by Richard Wright

This is a well performed, gripping page turner, melodramatic crime novel.
It starts out with the main character Erskine Fowler being booted out of his high level job at a Manhattan insurance company. He is only 43, but started there at 13 so has 30 years of service to the company. They give him a big send off with a nice pension and a gold medallion commemorating his service. He just goes along with it after a tepid attempt to stand up for himself.
One reason he doesn’t want to go is that the job has kept him busy for 6 days a week all these years and he knows within himself that there is something deeply wrong with him. It is something buried and the career activity has kept it out of sight, unavailable for him to either deal with or be troubled by.

It is a rather slapstick Rube Goldberg machine of events that lead him into the horrible tragedy that he is directly involved in. The rest of the novel is taken up with his covering up for that.
Through the course of the story he discovers this thing in his past that he has suppressed but it is too late to keep that from being transferred to a heinous crime.

In the story backdrop of all this Wright looks a male/female relationships, the treatment and image of women. It’s from the mid-1950s and that shows in how the widow character Mabel is portrayed. She is neglectful of her son, but in a setting of a woman alone in a hard world attempting to make a living. She is an independent woman in a very judgmental world and the novel points out the injustice and ultimate tragedy of this as well as the damage to neglected sons of mothers consumed by getting by in the world given them. No one here to love, the most appealing character being Mabel the “loose woman” widowed mother. The forced into retirement insurance man is a troubled, guilt ridden, suppressed Christian Sunday School teacher wackjob, the neglected son set to transform and extend that early psychological damage.


This is a well done hardcore experimental 1950s tragic crime novel

[Nik Maack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much a pulp novel in a noir style, with deep Freudian undertones. Hell,.undertones? The author mentions Freud by name at one point. I'd say the book is one of those noir love letters to Freud.

It's dated and goofy. And yet, at the same time, it's loads of fun. Partly it's the unexpected twists and turns the book takes. It layers a tone of comedy and horror on itself in a disturbing way.

It is fairly silly. But honestly that's what I liked about it. The author wrote this for quick cash, and then went on to write important works. If he hadn't written those other books, no one would remember this one.

Reminds me of Jim Thomson and other dark pulp writers of that era.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is very problematic for today's time, almost misogynistic in certain ways. Wright is one of my favorite writers and I was surprised to learn the characters in this book were all white because he didn't think audiences at the time could stomach the events or care about it being black people. I enjoyed it but it had it's issues, namely in its treatment of women and the masculine views of the time.

[Mark R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book that puts you right in the mind of a pretty deranged man. The genius of Richard Wright's storytelling is that you really feel for this man--up to a point. For a while the crazy things he does almost seem understandable.

I'd only previously read "Native Son," by Wright, and was not prepared for this kind of a hard-boiled, gritty, 50s psychological terror. I'd recommend this book to fans of serious literature and also those of pulp fiction.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating novel, one I'd put at the top of a list for thinking about Critical Whiteness.
I keep noodling over the collection of epigraphs and how the novel works as its explicit narrative and its implicit experiment in being seen through others' eyes.

[John W. Eddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beginning doesn't fit end

This was a very well written novel but the opening has little connection with the plot. Erskine's dismissal from his job plays a little role and meaning in the subsequent deaths of whom he has relationships.

[Rachel Ryan-Dorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that forces the reader to consider what one would do if caught in an unintentional and horrible circumstance. Is there anything worse than accidentally killing someone's child? Would you confess? Wright will leave you cringing and wincing throughout.