PETER Hollywood took inspiration from many quarters for his new Venice-based novel, Drowning the Gowns.
As well as writers Henry James, James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway, the Co Down author also harked back to two visits to the stunning Italian city and even borrowed the surname of one of his football heroes – Kenny Dalglish – for one character’s name.
The tale of mystery revolves around the fictional Irish artist Reuben Ross, who witnesses Henry James dumping a lady’s clothes out of a gondola and into the lagoon in Venice.
James famously featured Venice in his books The Aspern Papers and The Wings of the Dove and Hollywood is a long-time fan of the American writer.
“He isn’t the most widely read author, although he’s constantly appearing in fictional form,” he says.
“Colm Toibin wrote The Master about him, David Lodge also wrote Author Author and last year the American thriller writer Dan Simmons wrote a weird one called The Fifth Heart, where he partners Henry James with Sherlock Holmes.
“I loved James when I was in grammar school. I remember reading The Portrait of a Lady and watching an old BBC dramatisation of his novel The Ambassadors. So I was drawn in and went hunting for the novels.”
Hollywood quotes James at the start of his novel – “Venice has been painted and described thousands of times, and of all the cities in the world is the easiest to visit without going there” – but he drew on his two previous visits to the city while writing the book.
“I was in Venice as a student and I was there again as a parent with young children. The second time was during the summer when we were in Lake Garda and it was a rainy day, so we decided to take the train to Venice.
“The rain added to the whole mystical atmosphere of the city and the kids loved it. And the book is dedicated to the three of them [Kate, Jack and Rebecca].”
And while the penultimate chapter sees lead character Reuben return to Dublin for his father’s funeral, there is a broader Dublin influence on Drowning the Gowns.
“Believe it or not, in my mind Reuben Ross is a close literary relative to Leopold Bloom [from Ulysses]. I wanted to have somebody with an artistic persona, because he’s on a journey from 19th century pictorial art into the birth of modernism. And I’d argue that James is one of the original 'mod-fathers’ in that he was one of the first modernist writers. So I wanted an artist to mirror that movement.
“I love Ulysses. So the meandering through Venice in this novel mirrors the meandering through Dublin in Ulysses; both cities are labyrinths.”
Hollywood says that, “in many ways, this is my 1916 novel”.
“Henry James died in February 1916, a couple of months before the Easter Rising. The chapter that’s set in Dublin looks at [Irish politician] John Redmond’s huge 1912 [pro-Home Rule] rally. He said it was going to be his big moment and Padraig Pearse also spoke at it.”
Hollywood doesn’t actually reveal “the American writer” to be Henry James until late on in the novel, even though the name is prominently mentioned on the back cover.
“I didn’t want it to be a gimmick. When he is named, it’s when he loses patience with the Reuben Ross character. I wanted it to be a powerful moment. But yes, I did tell the publishers to put James’s name on the blurb.”
And despite the myriad inspirations behind his book, one key one was Hollywood’s brother Brian – who wrote a novel about Grace Kelly under the pen name Jude Quillan a couple of years ago.
“He tracked down the only biographical source for Henry James going into the lagoon in Venice to dump gowns – a BBC interview from 1956 – in which a lady says James told her about it. Brian said to me that it would make a good story, so I gave it a go.”
Drowning the Gowns is out now, published by New Island. Peter Hollywood appears at the Crescent Arts Centre on Saturday 11 June at 1pm, as part of the Belfast Book Festival (BelfastBookFestival.com).
