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In the Clear Light
In this book Fiona Kidman explores self-discovery achieved through, and often in spite of, social and family ties. Clara’s struggle to assert her independence against a background of oppression and despair is mirrored in the turmoil that lies beneath the blacked-out Auckland. This novel of rare beauty and uncommon insight is one no reader will ever forget. The scene is Auckland during the Second World War. In the warrenlike old tenement the residents call Paddy’s Puzzle, Clara Bentley awaits the arrival of Ambrose, her black lover, an American marine. She also waits for the bomb that might fall when the air raid siren sounds at night. She waits for visits from the strange inhabitants of the Puzzle―prostitutes; blackmarketeers; old Ma Hollis, who helps her keep body and soul together; and a host of others. She waits, too, for the culmination of an illness that has weakened her irremediably.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
About the author
Fiona Kidman
48 books66 followersFiona Kidman is a leading contemporary novelist, short story writer and poet. Much of her fiction is focused on how outsiders navigate their way in narrowly conformist society. She has published a large and exciting range of fiction and poetry, and has worked as a librarian, producer and critic. Kidman has won numerous awards, and she has been the recipient of fellowships, grants and other significant honours, as well as being a consistent advocate for New Zealand writers and literature. She is the President of Honour for the New Zealand Book Council, and has been awarded an OBE and a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 19, 2020
I’m surprised to see I am writing the first review on GR of this excellent novel by a New Zealand author.
It’s a coming of age story of a New Zealand girl in the time leading up to and during World War II. What makes this coming of age story different is that it is the story of what we could almost call a love triangle among the girl, Clara, her much older sister, and her mother. They grew up in a fairly large family (5 kids) but the story only tells us about the oldest and youngest daughters. The oldest daughter, nineteen at the start of the story, is married and has an infant. The oldest daughter used to be the mother’s favorite but was displaced by Clara, the baby of the family. Clara takes her mother’s love for granted but idolizes her older sister who resents her and only ‘uses’ her for babysitting.
A second theme is class. Clara grows up during the Depression. Everyone is poor but Clara’s family has it really tough with no father (a locomotive worker killed in a train wreck) and an uneducated mother who can’t read. They sell furniture and stand in food and lunch lines to survive. The class difference is not a big deal – almost everyone’s poor -- until she falls in love with the doctor’s son and he wants to marry her. Then the class difference hits her square in the face.
It’s a feminist novel too. Here are a couple of quotes that illustrate her difficulties growing up in a male-dominated world:
“….it worried her that their houses seemed to have more women than men, so that she was always relieved by the sight of men, and vaguely ashamed that she was not a boy, and sorry for Winnie [her sister] that Jeannie [her niece] had not been one either.”
“She stopped being good in history and maths, stopped being good at anything except being Robin’s [the doctor’s son] girlfriend.”
“It was about having two faces, one for your real self and one for the rest of the world, and in the end not knowing which one to believe. It was the reason for escape.”
During the War, when she’s 19, Clara moves from a small town to the big city – Auckland. She wanted to aid the war effort by working in a munitions factory, but instead she ends up in a chocolate factory, making rationed items that only rich people can afford. She lives in a slum – a warren-type multistory building that people call Paddy’s Puzzle – the type of place that when her nicely-dressed sister visits, the cab driver is afraid to drop her off at that location. The cast-off folks in the building become her family.
American soldiers are stationed in the city and she falls in love with a black American marine. He’s a streetwise man from Harlem who genuinely loves her. Even when she has an illness and they can’t have sex, he stays with her whenever he is on leave and brings her chocolate and flowers. But the story remains realistic – the man is no angel and the reader learns things about him that Clara doesn’t know. They have conversations about race relations and there’s the tension of how her family back home will react. Of course, he will eventually have to leave.
The death of her sister’s husband, killed in the war in North Africa, has made her sister hate Americans because she can’t understand why he was sent off to the fighting, rather than laying around town on the home-front like the American military men based in New Zealand.
And here’s what I’m not telling you in case you want to read the book:
A very good read and I liked the writing style. The author is a prolific writer with a dozen or so each of novels, collections of short stories and poems, even plays. I gather she is not well-know outside of her home country because her books have few ratings and reviews on GR but those that do are highly rated – most over 4.0, which is quite high. So I encourage you to try something by her. Her best-know work is a novel called This Mortal Boy.
Photo of Auckland from nytimes.com
US Marines in New Zealand during WW II from ww2db.com
The author from stuff.co.nz
It’s a coming of age story of a New Zealand girl in the time leading up to and during World War II. What makes this coming of age story different is that it is the story of what we could almost call a love triangle among the girl, Clara, her much older sister, and her mother. They grew up in a fairly large family (5 kids) but the story only tells us about the oldest and youngest daughters. The oldest daughter, nineteen at the start of the story, is married and has an infant. The oldest daughter used to be the mother’s favorite but was displaced by Clara, the baby of the family. Clara takes her mother’s love for granted but idolizes her older sister who resents her and only ‘uses’ her for babysitting.
A second theme is class. Clara grows up during the Depression. Everyone is poor but Clara’s family has it really tough with no father (a locomotive worker killed in a train wreck) and an uneducated mother who can’t read. They sell furniture and stand in food and lunch lines to survive. The class difference is not a big deal – almost everyone’s poor -- until she falls in love with the doctor’s son and he wants to marry her. Then the class difference hits her square in the face.
It’s a feminist novel too. Here are a couple of quotes that illustrate her difficulties growing up in a male-dominated world:
“….it worried her that their houses seemed to have more women than men, so that she was always relieved by the sight of men, and vaguely ashamed that she was not a boy, and sorry for Winnie [her sister] that Jeannie [her niece] had not been one either.”
“She stopped being good in history and maths, stopped being good at anything except being Robin’s [the doctor’s son] girlfriend.”
“It was about having two faces, one for your real self and one for the rest of the world, and in the end not knowing which one to believe. It was the reason for escape.”
During the War, when she’s 19, Clara moves from a small town to the big city – Auckland. She wanted to aid the war effort by working in a munitions factory, but instead she ends up in a chocolate factory, making rationed items that only rich people can afford. She lives in a slum – a warren-type multistory building that people call Paddy’s Puzzle – the type of place that when her nicely-dressed sister visits, the cab driver is afraid to drop her off at that location. The cast-off folks in the building become her family.
American soldiers are stationed in the city and she falls in love with a black American marine. He’s a streetwise man from Harlem who genuinely loves her. Even when she has an illness and they can’t have sex, he stays with her whenever he is on leave and brings her chocolate and flowers. But the story remains realistic – the man is no angel and the reader learns things about him that Clara doesn’t know. They have conversations about race relations and there’s the tension of how her family back home will react. Of course, he will eventually have to leave.
The death of her sister’s husband, killed in the war in North Africa, has made her sister hate Americans because she can’t understand why he was sent off to the fighting, rather than laying around town on the home-front like the American military men based in New Zealand.
And here’s what I’m not telling you in case you want to read the book:
A very good read and I liked the writing style. The author is a prolific writer with a dozen or so each of novels, collections of short stories and poems, even plays. I gather she is not well-know outside of her home country because her books have few ratings and reviews on GR but those that do are highly rated – most over 4.0, which is quite high. So I encourage you to try something by her. Her best-know work is a novel called This Mortal Boy.
Photo of Auckland from nytimes.com
US Marines in New Zealand during WW II from ww2db.com
The author from stuff.co.nz
January 30, 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This novel is set in New Zealand and begins in the Depression years. Clara is the youngest daughter of a lower middle class family with seven siblings. Winnie is the oldest; Clara was born when Winnie was nineteen. By the time Clara was born, the mom was worn out and Clara spent much of her formative childhood with young married Winnie who had her first baby when Clara was three.
As a thirteen year old, Clara fell hard for the rich kid in her school, the son of the local physician. Clara and Robin were together all through their high school years, although the doctor and his wife disapproved. Eventually Clara becomes pregnant and Dr. Mawson aborts her baby.
WWII breaks out it, and New Zealand is involved (more history that I didn’t know!) Robin enlists, Winnie’s hubby enlists, Clara leaves Hamilton for Auckland, ostensibly to find work with the war effort. You’ll have to read this book to find out what happens in Auckland.
Fiona Kidman is a famous New Zealand writer whose works are primarily about “young women subverting society’s expectations.” (Wikipedia) Clara is no exception!
ATY Goodreads Challenge 2023
Prompt #4 - A book with an interracial relationship
This novel is set in New Zealand and begins in the Depression years. Clara is the youngest daughter of a lower middle class family with seven siblings. Winnie is the oldest; Clara was born when Winnie was nineteen. By the time Clara was born, the mom was worn out and Clara spent much of her formative childhood with young married Winnie who had her first baby when Clara was three.
As a thirteen year old, Clara fell hard for the rich kid in her school, the son of the local physician. Clara and Robin were together all through their high school years, although the doctor and his wife disapproved. Eventually Clara becomes pregnant and Dr. Mawson aborts her baby.
WWII breaks out it, and New Zealand is involved (more history that I didn’t know!) Robin enlists, Winnie’s hubby enlists, Clara leaves Hamilton for Auckland, ostensibly to find work with the war effort. You’ll have to read this book to find out what happens in Auckland.
Fiona Kidman is a famous New Zealand writer whose works are primarily about “young women subverting society’s expectations.” (Wikipedia) Clara is no exception!
ATY Goodreads Challenge 2023
Prompt #4 - A book with an interracial relationship
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews