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Poppy's Progress
Middle-aged Poppy Sinclair enjoys an ordinary, quiet life with her partner on New Zealand's north coast when unexpected changes challenge her happiness in this evocative tale about the boundaries of friendship. This lesbian romance illustrates how turning 50 can be a time of reassessment, unpredictable adventures, and new relationships.
- GenresLGBT
196 pages, ebook
First published September 1, 2002
5 people want to read
About the author
Pat Rosier
9 books6 followersBorn and bred in New Zealand.
Travelled widely overseas.
Life experience includes: motherhood, teaching grade school, editing a feminist magazine, teaching adult education, coming out as a lesbian, writing, editing, training and consulting in the not-for-profit area on organisational management, coaching managers in not-for-profits.
Travelled widely overseas.
Life experience includes: motherhood, teaching grade school, editing a feminist magazine, teaching adult education, coming out as a lesbian, writing, editing, training and consulting in the not-for-profit area on organisational management, coaching managers in not-for-profits.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 15, 2012
Review published in the Dominion Post, 23 November 2002
Poppy's Progress
Pat Rosier
(Spinifex Press, $29.95)
Reviewed by Philippa Jamieson
Pat Rosier, a former editor of Broadsheet, has now turned her hand to writing fiction. Poppy's Progress stars a likeable but humanly flawed lesbian teacher living in Auckland, opening with her stifling yawns and fudging her way through a parent-teacher meeting. While mostly happy with her lot, Poppy Sinclair is still grieving over the loss of her partner Kate some years before. Then an unexpected visitor comes to stay, initially triggering Poppy's old set responses, but eventually providing the turning point for her to move on.
The novel shifts smoothly back and forward in time over the past quarter of a century, taking in Poppy's youth, first love, encounters with feminism, Kate's death, and the present. Many women, and lesbians in particular, will find reflections of their lives in these pages as Poppy's story is set against a backdrop of social issues like lesbian separatism, abortion and homosexual law reform. However rather than weaving these issues into the story, the author has pinned them on like badges, making for a somewhat didactic tone.
The novel's strongest point is probably the main character. Rosier paints a sympathetic portrait of Poppy, endearingly awkward in her youth, and in her middle age a self-contained woman who confides in her cat. In comparison, most of the other characters remain fairly flat.
There is a good story in here, but it's rarely allowed to flourish. Episodes in the book which should have been moving or emotionally charged, such as Kate's death, and a meeting about the Homosexual Law Reform Bill, are instead smothered by pedestrian reportage. Throughout the book there's an overload of mundane descriptions of things the reader doesn't need or want to know about. Rosier may well be a seasoned New Zealand writer, as the media release reports, but Poppy's Progress could have done with a lot more seasoning before being published. Fiction is a different kettle of fish from non-fiction, and the writer's maxim 'show not tell' needs to be applied here.
Poppy's Progress
Pat Rosier
(Spinifex Press, $29.95)
Reviewed by Philippa Jamieson
Pat Rosier, a former editor of Broadsheet, has now turned her hand to writing fiction. Poppy's Progress stars a likeable but humanly flawed lesbian teacher living in Auckland, opening with her stifling yawns and fudging her way through a parent-teacher meeting. While mostly happy with her lot, Poppy Sinclair is still grieving over the loss of her partner Kate some years before. Then an unexpected visitor comes to stay, initially triggering Poppy's old set responses, but eventually providing the turning point for her to move on.
The novel shifts smoothly back and forward in time over the past quarter of a century, taking in Poppy's youth, first love, encounters with feminism, Kate's death, and the present. Many women, and lesbians in particular, will find reflections of their lives in these pages as Poppy's story is set against a backdrop of social issues like lesbian separatism, abortion and homosexual law reform. However rather than weaving these issues into the story, the author has pinned them on like badges, making for a somewhat didactic tone.
The novel's strongest point is probably the main character. Rosier paints a sympathetic portrait of Poppy, endearingly awkward in her youth, and in her middle age a self-contained woman who confides in her cat. In comparison, most of the other characters remain fairly flat.
There is a good story in here, but it's rarely allowed to flourish. Episodes in the book which should have been moving or emotionally charged, such as Kate's death, and a meeting about the Homosexual Law Reform Bill, are instead smothered by pedestrian reportage. Throughout the book there's an overload of mundane descriptions of things the reader doesn't need or want to know about. Rosier may well be a seasoned New Zealand writer, as the media release reports, but Poppy's Progress could have done with a lot more seasoning before being published. Fiction is a different kettle of fish from non-fiction, and the writer's maxim 'show not tell' needs to be applied here.
January 27, 2024
Still a good smattering of tales of New Zealands political achiements for lesbian lives from a 50 year Olds point of view. RIP Pat
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews