The Open World

by Stephanie Johnson

'I miss my smiling son more than any other man before or since.'

London 1866.

Elizabeth Smith is struggling to survive when she hears that her former New Zealand employers, Judge and Lady Martin, are returning to England. Accompanied by her dear friend, the lunatic Reverend Cotton, she makes a pilgrimage to settle old scores. Elizabeth is also accompanied by liberal doses of opiates and two small ghosts, walking by her side, whispering, murmuring, calling her.

Award-winning writer Stephanie Johnson lovingly peoples a landscape of the past. Mid-century New Zealand, London and the spa town of Buxton are vividly evoked in a novel about motherhood, earliest colonial days, pharmacology and poreirewa - the yearning for absent loved ones.

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 5, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database. 5^

Stephanie Johnson is the author of several collections of poetry and of short stories, some plays and adaptations, and many fine novels. The New Zealand Listener commented that ‘Stephanie Johnson is a writer of talent and distinction. Over the course of an award-winning career — during which she has written plays, poetry, short stories and novels — she has become a significant presence in the New Zealand literary landscape, a presence cemented and enhanced by her roles as critic and creative writing teacher.' the Shag Incident won the Montana Deutz Medal for Fiction in 2003, and Belief was shortlisted for the same award. Stephanie has also won the Bruce Mason Playwrights Award and Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, and was the 2001 Literary Fellow at the University of Auckland. Many of her novels have been published in Australia, America and the United Kingdom. She co-founded the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival with Peter Wells in 1999.

Reviews

[Patricanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her old age, Elizabeth reminisces about her life in England and the colony of NZ, while coping with her current difficulties. I found the quick flips between different times in the past and the present difficult at first, but eventually it made sense. The depiction of the early days of the colony of New Zealand and the interaction of the colonists with the local population is well drawn, and, I would like to think, accurate. In my opinion, a better book than one that won the Booker.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. This book entrances with its evocation of life as it was in NZ and in London 150 years ago. It was this rather than the plot itself which kept me reading. It is the sort of book which one could read again quite easily.

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am always excited to pick up a historical novel written by a fellow New Zealander and as soon as I saw this one on the shelf I knew that I had to read it. Not only does it have a beautiful cover but what seemed like a amazing premise.

In a nutshell this book is based on real historical figures and events. In fact the main character Elizabeth Smith is the authors Great-Great something grandmother. The novel opens in 1860's London. She lived in early colonial New Zealand and still longs for the country she left behind. Elizabeth is a religious drug user and either due to this or supernatural forces she beings to see two young children from her past. Her dear friend the Reverend Cotton is mad and somewhat in love with Mary Ann a well to do wife of a Judge. Elizabeth was Mary Ann's companion and together they navigate this strange new country and its inhabitants.

Overall this book could be very confusing at times. It jumped time period and point of view multiple times without warning. I could be reading a chapter and get half way before I realised what was happening. Nothing was wrong with the writing style, the problem way with the storyline and characterisation. It was bland and uninteresting. Nothing seemed to happen! I did not see the point in this book at all. The story started off well but I grew increasingly bored and frustrated when the story began to flounder. It was only by sheer willpower that I finished this in the hopes that it would improve. This book was a huge disappointment as I was so looking forward to reading this book and have loved so many other New Zealand historical novels. If you are interested in this sort of thing I would recommend ' La Rochelle's Road by Tanya Moir' which was absolutely wonderful

Rating: 2.5

[Sunflower · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. It is a work of fiction, loosely based on the life of the author's great-great-great-grandmother, a woman whose life was spent between England and New Zealand in the mid-1800's. Colonial life and the voyages undertaken are vividly portrayed- sometimes to a modern day Kiwi the use of Maori place names and words, and known historical figures resonated and sometimes it felt wrong. Perhaps because we use those same words now, but in a very different context.
I had difficulty at times figuring out who the narrator was, and I found the frequent descriptions of opiate use/abuse a little unbelievable- the woman seemed to have a large supply and yet never appeared to procure any more. Did our early Colonials really use so much of the stuff? Also the ghosts which appear at intervals didn't seem to really fit; though I guess they could have been opiate-induced hallucinations.....
At the end the tale comes full circle

[Vicki Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved finding out that the characters were real people and related to the author!