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Coal Flat
- GenresFiction
421 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
About the author
Bill Pearson
4 booksBill Pearson was a fiction writer, essayist and critic. His influential essay, ‘Fretful Sleepers: A Sketch of New Zealand Behaviour and Its Implications for the Artist’, appeared in Landfall in 1952 and outlined many themes Pearson explored in his first novel, Coal Flat. This book was received as the most important New Zealand novel of its time, yet Pearson published no more fiction, concentrating instead on literary criticism and scholarship. Pearson helped define the themes of New Zealand critical realism and as a university lecturer was among the first to teach a course in New Zealand literature.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 9, 2026
I know it is always hard to set a broad-based national curriculum, and I can see a book of 400 pages would not be an easy read for all students… …but in my dream tyranny, this would be required reading for all New Zealanders. Even with the demographic, cultural and technological changes since its publication, the national trait of stultifying conformism in Coal Flat weigh on us today.
A Question of Character
What I love about this Coal Flat is that it is deeply critical of post war New Zealand’s culture of conformity. Characters see each other through the prism of how they each accord with society’s expectations rather than as individuals themselves. Peter Herhily is a deeply drawn character, a wayward child does “bad” things and is anti-social, but all the things he does and appears to be is set in the context of how he has been treated. Pearson gives him a dynamic nature where he reacts positively and negatively in accordance with interactions with other people. He is a tragic character, not because of some inherent Shakespearean Tragic flaw, but because what is done upon him.
Peter Herlihy is the most obvious one, but the other character also move and change, which reflects that Coal Flat is a dialogue heavy book. Characters have to act and react via conversation to keep the story moving – they are not simply plopped into an event and then reacting consistently according to their preset motivations (which is closer to the approach in The Luminaries). Where there is a major external event (the pub boycott over a price rise) it is the exception proving the rule by demonstrating characters evolving both to the situation and the reaction of others to it.
A Question of Perspective
As I understand it from multiple sources (which may themselves all be from the same source), Pearson considered writing the lead character Paul Rogers as gay, but eventually chose not to, separating the character in this way from Pearson’s own life as a teacher on the West Coast. I have not yet investigated as to Pearson’s decision-making process, but Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand does make this comment:
Pearson was proud of the novel but felt the published version had been compromised by the necessity of closeting his main character, Paul Rogers – making him both heterosexual and less central – and giving the community of Coal Flat greater prominence.
It accords with my suspicions about how prejudice works as a constraint on writing in more ways than “the public won’t like it”. If Rogers was gay, significant portions of the book would have to deal with how it impacted him, making the book far more insular than a comment on the society. Obviously, Pearson did have that additional burden, but it shows how difficult it is to write a novel with a full spectrum of perspectives – instead the author must pick and choose what aspects to cover to get their themes/plot/characterisation across. Without the prejudice of the times, whether Rogers was gay or not would, at the time of writing, likely need deep discursions into the subject to explain and have other characters take a view on it.
Does that mean Rogers’ relationship with Flora have an air of inauthenticity? There is an awkward jump in relationship status early on that baffles me relative to their on-page chemistry. It mostly serves as a vehicle for creating tension in other relationships, which I guess is fine enough – the book is not intended as an exploration of romances, as Miss Dane learns.
Even so, the irony that Pearson made his character conform to national norms in a book about conformism (oh for the freedom of whitebaiting in the Maori River by Haast) does add a “meta” feel to it.
A part of our heritage, even as an ugly one.
A Question of Character
What I love about this Coal Flat is that it is deeply critical of post war New Zealand’s culture of conformity. Characters see each other through the prism of how they each accord with society’s expectations rather than as individuals themselves. Peter Herhily is a deeply drawn character, a wayward child does “bad” things and is anti-social, but all the things he does and appears to be is set in the context of how he has been treated. Pearson gives him a dynamic nature where he reacts positively and negatively in accordance with interactions with other people. He is a tragic character, not because of some inherent Shakespearean Tragic flaw, but because what is done upon him.
Peter Herlihy is the most obvious one, but the other character also move and change, which reflects that Coal Flat is a dialogue heavy book. Characters have to act and react via conversation to keep the story moving – they are not simply plopped into an event and then reacting consistently according to their preset motivations (which is closer to the approach in The Luminaries). Where there is a major external event (the pub boycott over a price rise) it is the exception proving the rule by demonstrating characters evolving both to the situation and the reaction of others to it.
A Question of Perspective
As I understand it from multiple sources (which may themselves all be from the same source), Pearson considered writing the lead character Paul Rogers as gay, but eventually chose not to, separating the character in this way from Pearson’s own life as a teacher on the West Coast. I have not yet investigated as to Pearson’s decision-making process, but Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand does make this comment:
Pearson was proud of the novel but felt the published version had been compromised by the necessity of closeting his main character, Paul Rogers – making him both heterosexual and less central – and giving the community of Coal Flat greater prominence.
It accords with my suspicions about how prejudice works as a constraint on writing in more ways than “the public won’t like it”. If Rogers was gay, significant portions of the book would have to deal with how it impacted him, making the book far more insular than a comment on the society. Obviously, Pearson did have that additional burden, but it shows how difficult it is to write a novel with a full spectrum of perspectives – instead the author must pick and choose what aspects to cover to get their themes/plot/characterisation across. Without the prejudice of the times, whether Rogers was gay or not would, at the time of writing, likely need deep discursions into the subject to explain and have other characters take a view on it.
Does that mean Rogers’ relationship with Flora have an air of inauthenticity? There is an awkward jump in relationship status early on that baffles me relative to their on-page chemistry. It mostly serves as a vehicle for creating tension in other relationships, which I guess is fine enough – the book is not intended as an exploration of romances, as Miss Dane learns.
Even so, the irony that Pearson made his character conform to national norms in a book about conformism (oh for the freedom of whitebaiting in the Maori River by Haast) does add a “meta” feel to it.
A part of our heritage, even as an ugly one.
October 18, 2022
A fascinating novel about a small mining town in New Zealand in 1947. Pearson apparently took more than a decade to write and publish this, with numerous rewrites. The story has several different threads, which combine to paint a complex picture of life in a working class community, and wider NZ society at the time. I think I have a better idea of the period after reading Coal Flat, than I got from a number of NZ history books and articles.
Not all the characters are totally convincing: Paul is quite puzzling. Apparently Pearson originally intended to write him as a closeted gay man, but then decided not to, which in itself says a lot about the puritan culture that dominated NZ in the 1950s. Anyway, Paul's romance with Flora never really rings true.
On the other hand, there are some brilliantly drawn characters, especially Mrs Palmer, the woman who runs the pub with her husband. Also the teacher Miss Dane, the embodiment of a sheltered middle class woman, who has to confront the crude world of the mineworkers.
In other ways, the story is quite frank in the way it treats sex, and the prejudices and witch-hunting atmosphere that take hold of the town. The more overtly political elements are also interesting: the novel conveys the growing disillusionment with the Labour government, and sympathy for the Soviet Union and communism among many workers at the time. The book also tells you something about the controversies in the NZ education system, and the nature of the trade unions at the time.
Not all the characters are totally convincing: Paul is quite puzzling. Apparently Pearson originally intended to write him as a closeted gay man, but then decided not to, which in itself says a lot about the puritan culture that dominated NZ in the 1950s. Anyway, Paul's romance with Flora never really rings true.
On the other hand, there are some brilliantly drawn characters, especially Mrs Palmer, the woman who runs the pub with her husband. Also the teacher Miss Dane, the embodiment of a sheltered middle class woman, who has to confront the crude world of the mineworkers.
In other ways, the story is quite frank in the way it treats sex, and the prejudices and witch-hunting atmosphere that take hold of the town. The more overtly political elements are also interesting: the novel conveys the growing disillusionment with the Labour government, and sympathy for the Soviet Union and communism among many workers at the time. The book also tells you something about the controversies in the NZ education system, and the nature of the trade unions at the time.
December 6, 2023
It read as peculiarly unbalanced, to me, but this is probably due to changes in what's shocking and what's conventional - so much violence towards children, both emotional and physical, just taken for granted by most of the characters as part of life, and then so much fuss over adults transgressing some social mores... I'm guessing this is what the author was trying to illustrate.
Anyway there's some amazing portraits of New Zealand and its people in this, some beautiful and elated parts as well as the darkness, and at least it didn't all get as completely dark as I thought it might at one point.
Anyway there's some amazing portraits of New Zealand and its people in this, some beautiful and elated parts as well as the darkness, and at least it didn't all get as completely dark as I thought it might at one point.
April 5, 2020
A postcard from post WW2 West Coast NZ. The well built characters depict the social, class, political, and racial struggles in a small town. Slow to build and a quick finish with a understated climax in a Kiwi way.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews