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Bloom
Constant Spry, newly liberated of her waitressing job, is summoned home by her grandmother, the irrepressible Mrs Angela Spry. Accompanied by Nanny Smack, the ghost who crochets tomorrow's sky, Connie journeys south to Goshen - a crossroads caught between the mountain and the sea. And, slowly but surely, she gathers the myriad threads that are the lives and loves of the four murderous and conveniently forgetful Women Spry.
251 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 14, 2018
My discovery of this absorbing novel is due to serendipity. I’d been exploring Teara, the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand online when (via Creative and Intellectual Life/Literature/Maori fiction) I came across the entry for Kelly Ana Morey and mention of her first, award-winning novel Bloom (2003) which won the Best First Book Prize at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2004. Intrigued, I hunted around until I found a second-hand copy. Now that I’ve read it, I’m keen to find copies of her other novels: Grace is Gone (2004), On an island, with consequences dire (2007) and Quinine (2010).
Trained as an art historian, Morey worked as the Royal New Zealand Navy’s oral historian (from which came the book Service from the sea (2008) about the Navy Museum’s collection) – and perhaps it’s the visual artist’s way of looking at the world that has influenced her writing. On almost every page there are images rendered in exquisite and often sensual detail:
The blurb teases readers who might be looking for a conventional crime novel:
Instead, the ‘murders’ – all four of them – are gradually revealed to be more like misadventures as the novel progresses lightheartedly through a century and a half. Connie returns home with a sense of curiosity about her elusive father (as well she might), and pursues her personal history through the memories, anecdotes and old photos of the women in her life. The murkiness of the male line contrasts with the common preoccupation with family genealogy: this is not a family that can construct a neat family tree. Morey’s women are triumphantly not 'respectable'.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/07/14/b...
Trained as an art historian, Morey worked as the Royal New Zealand Navy’s oral historian (from which came the book Service from the sea (2008) about the Navy Museum’s collection) – and perhaps it’s the visual artist’s way of looking at the world that has influenced her writing. On almost every page there are images rendered in exquisite and often sensual detail:
I looked in the direction of his pointed finger and caught the flare of the sun on a corrugated-iron roof. Alistair produced an apple from his pocket and began to polish it on the leg of his tan cotton shorts. ‘Would you like half?’ he asked, holding up the gleaming apple for my inspection.
‘Yes please.’
Using a penknife hanging from a waxy string around his neck, Alistair cut the apple in half, giving me the piece that had the reddest skin. Juice oozed from the cut surface, dripping onto my hands. I licked the sugary liquid from my fingers. It tasted of the sun. (p. 133)
The blurb teases readers who might be looking for a conventional crime novel:
Constant Spry, newly liberated of her waitressing job, is summoned home by her grandmother, the irrepressible Mrs Algebra Spry. Accompanied by Nanny Smack, the ghost who crochets tomorrow’s sky, Connie journeys south to Goshen – a crossroads caught between the mountain and the sea. And, slowly but surely, she gathers the myriad threads that are the lives and loves of the four murderous and conveniently forgetful Women Spry.
Instead, the ‘murders’ – all four of them – are gradually revealed to be more like misadventures as the novel progresses lightheartedly through a century and a half. Connie returns home with a sense of curiosity about her elusive father (as well she might), and pursues her personal history through the memories, anecdotes and old photos of the women in her life. The murkiness of the male line contrasts with the common preoccupation with family genealogy: this is not a family that can construct a neat family tree. Morey’s women are triumphantly not 'respectable'.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/07/14/b...
October 16, 2017
"The first time she met him, he told her that he wanted to be a poet and that he was living on borrowed time. The line fell to the floor, gasping for air and, after flicking feebly a few times, turned its toes up, stone cold dead. Rose had heard this particular pick-up at least five times the night before at another party, in another student flat."
June 5, 2015
I was really hoping for a lot more from this book. The blurb talks about the ghost of Nanny Smack who crochets tomorrow's skies, of murderous women etc. However the book contained very little of what the blurb set up. It is the story of 3 generations of women which in itself is nice and interesting. It is well written, easy to read, I really enjoyed the language and author's style. However for me, I was disappointed with what I was reading compared to what I was expecting.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews