Review 383: Towards Another Summer

Towards Another Summer by Janet Frame
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I saw a documentary about Janet Frame several many years ago. I've wanted to read some of her work since then, and finally I did get to one book.

This one Frame considered her most autobiographical and did not want it published while she was alive.

The book that takes place over a weekend. A New Zealand writer, Alice, who is living in England goes to visit a couple in their house. She hardly knows them, so it's a little awkward, oh there are kids!

There is so much inner life, all the worries and anxieties, plus she seems to always be thinking about when she was growing up. There is a comparison often, of this couple to her parents. So in this one weekend, just hearing the main character's inner thoughts, we get a sense of what it was like for her growing up and how dysfunctional, and unusual her family was. And yet there was something to identify with, we all have unusual family experiences and these inner thoughts Alice has, well haven't well all had some of these anxieties? Rehash over and over what was said and not said?

Oh, and the language, such wonderful turns of phrase and descriptions. The words Frame used, that alone was worth the read.

Review 380: Birnam Wood

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book takes place in New Zealand. I haven’t read many books where this is the setting, so that was appealing. The main description was about an activist gardening collective, called Birnam Wood, that plants in unused land, also sounded interesting.

We start out with two of the main Brirnam Wood people, well it seems like they are the only people involved, but that isn’t the case. These two women live together and are fully enmeshed in each other’s lives, but at least one of them is not happy with the current situation. It feels set up that the book is about these two, but it’s more than that.

We get an omniscient point of view that practically tells the entire story. We do switch characters, a limited number at least, and get each of their personal thoughts, but there is less interaction between the characters, and hardly any dialogue.

It is these thick paragraphs that bogged down the reading for me, with hardly any breaks just endless thoughts and ruminations on past or present circumstances and philosophies.

The action comes later, and yet still somewhat slowed. The book was listed as a mystery/thriller but that isn’t quite true. Although there is something a bit unknown. There is practically no tension in the book.

I suppose I took the book too seriously, as it did have a light-hearted type feel to it, despite some of the content. After finishing I realized I didn’t really like, nor connect with, any of the characters. And I thoroughly did not like the ending. Yet I don’t feel it was a waste to have read the book. I found a moment or two where I learned something about New Zealand, the character of the people there.

But the ending...did not like that one bit.

Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 188: The Colour

The Colour by Rose Tremain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This historical novel is set in the mid-1800’s, a newly married couple with his mother emigrate from England to New Zealand. They are a slightly older couple but determined to start a new life. Harriet wanted to leave being a governess, while Joseph Blackstone had to leave. We discover early on his mother was also joining them due to the untimely, and embarrassing, death of her husband that left her with nothing but debts. In this new land they homestead and try to become a family.

We soon find out Joseph keeps too many secrets, even when he finds gold dust in their river. Soon the gold fever is sweeping New Zealand and Joseph must go to the latest site on the other side of the mountains. Harriet by this time is happy to have her time alone, still longing for her adventure.

The book drew me in but slowly became less soothing than it started out. And there is part where it was just odd, magical realism you could call it, with the neighbor boy and a native person, Pare. They became connected and the boy knew things he shouldn’t.

I enjoyed Harriet’s character and the neighbor’s, the Orchards (Toby, Dorothy and the boy Edwin). It took nearly a day to reach their house, so calling them neighbor’s may be stretching it, yet the land was nearly empty. It felt like accurate descriptions of a mining camp. One thought I kept having was, how much money did Joseph have? It seemed like he kept spending money when he had none.