Ballet for Men in Gumboots - an oyster farmer's tale

by Hailey Roussin-Guillemot

Jack knows a lot about growing oysters; after all they’re simple creatures. He’s not a fan of complications, which is probably why he’s thirty eight and still single the day his brother asks for a favour. Jack heads for a small coastal town where an oyster farmer with a grudge is planning revenge. It’s got other oyster farmers worried; what goes in the water effects them all. Slowly, Jack gathers information from the people he meets in the town, but it’s a risky business not knowing who’s watching you. There’s the dodgy Caretaker, the horny Chef, the alcoholic Barber, and the boss’s wife...well, you’ll find out soon enough. Knee deep in mud, working for a maniac, with only his old dog for company, Jack thinks it’s about time life threw him a bone. When Rose joins the houseboat community where Jack lives, it’s almost more than he can handle. I mean, a man has needs too, right? He wants more than rugby, beer, and fart jokes (they’re unavoidable round here). As Jack nears the end of his investigation and discovers the truth, Rose becomes tangled in the plot for revenge. Jack can’t leave until she is safe, and anyway, he wants her to leave with him. Jack’s not a fighter, he’s a stick-in-the-mud. Maybe that’s why he loves growing oysters.

Although a light-hearted work of fiction, this book is packed with information on how an oyster farm works, and what it’s like to work on one.

342 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2015

Reviews

[Reg Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I expected a love-story in an unusual surrounding. That's why I bought the e-book.
What I got was a lot more fun and a lot more unknown facts about a business that's totaly strange to me in a country on the other side of the world.
I struggled with several terms of the New Zealand language, but it was very funny.The story is well written, well plotted and with a good pace. Lovable characters and strange habits.
I liked it very much and learned a lot about oysters and the men who grow them.
Thanks to Hailey Roussin-Guillemot I feel a need to visit NZ and try their oysters myself....
but without the hard and muddy 'ballet in gumboots'!

Great story!
Reg

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish the author had taken the time to revise, revise, revise, and then maybe put the manuscript away for a few years and revised again before offering it to the public. She's a good writer, and the idea of the story intrigued me. I think this could be made much better, if she wants to put more time into it. As is there are way too many unnecessary and boring details of the characters and their daily lives. These details may have seemed important to the author when she was writing them down, but to a reader who is neither a relative or acquaintance they add nothing to the story and only cause the desire to skip long passages. I'm afraid that's what I did, after the first chapter- I sped read it. Really a shame if she doesn't try doing more with this!