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Nostalgia: From the Booker-longlisted author of One Boat
The small Tuscan town of Castelluccio is preparing for its annual festival, a spectacular pageant in which a leading role will be taken by the self-exiled English painter Gideon Westfall. A man proudly out of step with modernity, Westfall is regarded by some as a maestro, but in Castelluccio - as in the wider art world - he has his enemies, and his niece - just arrived from England - is no great admirer either. At the same time a local girl is missing, a disappearance that seems to implicate the artist.But the life and art of Gideon Westfall form just one strand of Nostalgia, a novel that teems with incidents and characters, from religious visionaries to folk heroes. Constantly shifting between the panoramic and the intimate, between the past and the present, Nostalgia is as intricately structured as a symphony, interweaving the narratives of history, legend, architecture - and much more - in a kaleidoscope of facts and invention.
480 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 7, 2013
3 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Buckley
76 books53 followersJonathan Buckley was born in Birmingham, grew up in Dudley, and studied English Literature at Sussex University, where he stayed on to take an MA. From there he moved to King’s College, London, where he researched the work of the Scottish poet/artist Ian Hamilton Finlay. After working as a university tutor, stage hand, maker of theatrical sets and props, bookshop manager, decorator and builder, he was commissioned in 1987 to write the Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto.
He went on to become an editorial director at Rough Guides, and to write further guidebooks on Tuscany & Umbria and Florence, as well as contributing to the Rough Guide to Classical Music and Rough Guide to Opera.
His first novel, The Biography of Thomas Lang, was published by Fourth Estate in 1997. It was followed by Xerxes (1999), Ghost MacIndoe (2001), Invisible (2004), So He Takes The Dog (2006), Contact (2010) and Telescope (2011). His eighth novel, Nostalgia, was published in 2013.
From 2003 to 2005 he held a Royal Literary Fund fellowship at the University of Sussex, and from 2007 to 2011 was an Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, for whom he convenes a reading group in Brighton.
He went on to become an editorial director at Rough Guides, and to write further guidebooks on Tuscany & Umbria and Florence, as well as contributing to the Rough Guide to Classical Music and Rough Guide to Opera.
His first novel, The Biography of Thomas Lang, was published by Fourth Estate in 1997. It was followed by Xerxes (1999), Ghost MacIndoe (2001), Invisible (2004), So He Takes The Dog (2006), Contact (2010) and Telescope (2011). His eighth novel, Nostalgia, was published in 2013.
From 2003 to 2005 he held a Royal Literary Fund fellowship at the University of Sussex, and from 2007 to 2011 was an Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, for whom he convenes a reading group in Brighton.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 7, 2016
I decided to read a couple of little known novels set in Tuscany during my holiday there. Hands down winner of the two was the other one I read – The Way Back to Florence. Nostalgia, on the other hand, was such a low key novel that at times reading it was a bit like watching a film with the sound turned down –I could see what was happening but I didn’t understand why it was happening.
The author has a deep knowledge of and affection for Italy and makes both felt in his creation of a fictitious small town in Tuscany – Castelluccio. This isn’t one of those novels where the author’s research consists of a ten day holiday in the place he’s writing about. There’s a stirring authentic richness about the imaginary Tuscan town he conjures up. But the town is by far the best character in the novel. The human characters are Gideon Westfall, an artist and his feckless assistant Robert. Gideon, a classical painter who abhors modernism, finds much of his self worth in identifying himself with the old masters. However he’s depicted as more of a hobbyist than a significant artist whose nostalgia is essentially a charade. Into this arrangement arrives Claire, Gideon’s niece, a very unlikely Lucy Honeychurch. (This novel constantly seems to be arguing with A Room with a View.) Claire is pragmatic, loveless, rather disapproving by nature and certainly not someone to let her feelings run away with her. While Claire hardly wreaks havoc on the relationship between Gideon and Robert, she does subtly shift its dynamic.
The novel is strewn with Lonely Planet type accounts of the town’s heritage so the fiction is answering to the text of another fiction disguised as fact. It’s a clever idea but the cleverness served only to suck energy from a story which had very little energy or inspiration to begin with. Time and time again I was left bewildered by how the author ever felt he had a story to tell here. It’s like he was poking fun at Forster’s idea of Tuscany as catharsis for sleeping passions; Buckley’s Tuscany is more like a soporific, facilitating the adoption of lazy habit as a way of life. But the problem is, lazy habit is hardly a winning formula for a novel which is why this novel doesn’t have an engine, doesn’t have any drive.
I was left with no idea why this novel is called Nostalgia. Our entire idea of Tuscany is nothing but a false nostalgia? There are quite a few Italians in this book but they are essentially merely extras – ordinary people getting on with their ordinary lives, people belittled by habit.
In the penultimate sentence the narrative switches from third person to first. We understand the whole book has been narrated by Robert. This just seemed like a gimmick to me, rather than a revelation that brought everything into clearer focus. I’m afraid for me this is the kind of novel that gives post-modernism a bad name. The idea of combining a novel with a phoney tour guide wasn’t bad; just a shame the author, who can write well, was so wanting in inspiration when it came to choosing characters and a story for his idea.
The author has a deep knowledge of and affection for Italy and makes both felt in his creation of a fictitious small town in Tuscany – Castelluccio. This isn’t one of those novels where the author’s research consists of a ten day holiday in the place he’s writing about. There’s a stirring authentic richness about the imaginary Tuscan town he conjures up. But the town is by far the best character in the novel. The human characters are Gideon Westfall, an artist and his feckless assistant Robert. Gideon, a classical painter who abhors modernism, finds much of his self worth in identifying himself with the old masters. However he’s depicted as more of a hobbyist than a significant artist whose nostalgia is essentially a charade. Into this arrangement arrives Claire, Gideon’s niece, a very unlikely Lucy Honeychurch. (This novel constantly seems to be arguing with A Room with a View.) Claire is pragmatic, loveless, rather disapproving by nature and certainly not someone to let her feelings run away with her. While Claire hardly wreaks havoc on the relationship between Gideon and Robert, she does subtly shift its dynamic.
The novel is strewn with Lonely Planet type accounts of the town’s heritage so the fiction is answering to the text of another fiction disguised as fact. It’s a clever idea but the cleverness served only to suck energy from a story which had very little energy or inspiration to begin with. Time and time again I was left bewildered by how the author ever felt he had a story to tell here. It’s like he was poking fun at Forster’s idea of Tuscany as catharsis for sleeping passions; Buckley’s Tuscany is more like a soporific, facilitating the adoption of lazy habit as a way of life. But the problem is, lazy habit is hardly a winning formula for a novel which is why this novel doesn’t have an engine, doesn’t have any drive.
I was left with no idea why this novel is called Nostalgia. Our entire idea of Tuscany is nothing but a false nostalgia? There are quite a few Italians in this book but they are essentially merely extras – ordinary people getting on with their ordinary lives, people belittled by habit.
In the penultimate sentence the narrative switches from third person to first. We understand the whole book has been narrated by Robert. This just seemed like a gimmick to me, rather than a revelation that brought everything into clearer focus. I’m afraid for me this is the kind of novel that gives post-modernism a bad name. The idea of combining a novel with a phoney tour guide wasn’t bad; just a shame the author, who can write well, was so wanting in inspiration when it came to choosing characters and a story for his idea.
December 24, 2013
Claire Yardley, who is recently divorced, visits Gideon Westfall, her late father's brother at his home in Italy. Gideon Westfall is a painter of some renown who has made his home in Italy but has not learnt to speak Italian so he relies on his assistant Robert to communicate with the locals. At the beginning of the novel, one of Gideon's models, Ilaria, has disappeared.
This novel presents a panoramic description of the Italian countryside, with vivid accounts of the history, geography and local characters, but some readers may find that the plot does not develop enough to hold their interest. Ilaria's disappearance is explained at the end of the novel, but the explanation is not momentous. A stronger plot line is needed to sustain the reader's interest in a book of this length.
This novel presents a panoramic description of the Italian countryside, with vivid accounts of the history, geography and local characters, but some readers may find that the plot does not develop enough to hold their interest. Ilaria's disappearance is explained at the end of the novel, but the explanation is not momentous. A stronger plot line is needed to sustain the reader's interest in a book of this length.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2018
Again, too long. It's my first Buckley, so maybe the style is his normal approach, but in the end I found the interleaving of local fictional detail (I assume it's fictional) to be overlong and overwhelming. I don't think the story really needed all the Wikipedia-like pages.
October 29, 2017
Made me get "So he takes the dog" and I'll be checking for more.
April 22, 2014
The story captures the atmosphere and history of an Italian town. Relationship between the conceited artist and his niece is well drawn, although I questioned how she put up with his behaviour. Historical and artistic
background did add to the story but at times dragged. A slow burn rather than a page turner.
background did add to the story but at times dragged. A slow burn rather than a page turner.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews